Jtil ^SlA CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DS 685.N95 '" ""'"'"^'*'' ^'"'^'^ ""^'^iriimnm'iiiBiiiif^ ^""^ ''^ problems / 3 1924 023 099 009 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023099009 ORIENTAL AMERICA AND ITS PROBLEMS BY THEODORE W. NOYES WASHINGTON, D. C. PRESS OF JUDD & DETWEliBR 1903 COPYRIGriT," I'goS, By Theodore W. Noyes PREFACE The keen public interest in things Philippine aroused by the naval victory of Cavite in the war with Spain has not been permitted to die out in accordance with custom and precedent, but through a succession of stimulating renewals is unmistakably alive and conspicuously in evi- dence today. Military operations in the islands against the Tagalogs have involved the transfer to the Asiatic tropics of thousands of Americans, upoft every one of whom have been focused the hopes and fears of men and women on this side of the world. War associations have attached to the Philippines, not only vividly pictured in the memory of the soldier him- self, but also indelibly impressed upon the home circle, whose members have followed with mingled pride and apprehension every step of the loved one amid strange perils in a foreign land. Such problems as those presented by the once dominating Spanish friar with his vast land holdings in Luzon, by the invader Chinaman threatening the Filipino's means of support, by the Malay at once pliable and treacherous, by the Mahometan Moro with his incidentals of polyg- amy and slavery, and those arising in the course of the gradual develop- ment of civil administration and self-government in a tropical archi- pelago, all combine to furnish a novel and fascinating study to Ameri- cans. In the battle which raged over the issues of anti-imperialism and anti-expansion in the hotly contested presidential campaign of 1900 the Philippines were kept constantly on the firing line. Public attention has been further attracted by the verbal clash of elaborate and able argument in the insular tariff cases, and by the deci- sions of the United States Supreme Court in May and December, 1901, defining the status of this appurtenant territory of the United States, its relations to the republic, and the powers of Congress in respect to it. The national legislature, spurred to action by the Supreme Court's December decision concerning the status of the archipelago, has during the Fifty-seventh Congress carefully considered and finally announced its tentative solution of the problem of the wisest and best present treat- ment of our Asiatic territory. The democratic party in Congress has joined issue with the administration's PhiHppine policy, and has declared renewed allegiance to the anti-imperialism doctrine of the Kansas City platform. President Roosevelt has made the Fourth of July a notable day in Filipino annals by proclaiming on that date in 1902 the end of the war, the extension of civil government to all the Christian provinces of the archipelago, and amnesty for Filipino political offenders. From the beginning of the war with Spain down to the present day in the springof 1903 all sorts and conditions of Americans^trade expansion- iv Oriental America and its Problems ists, territorial expansionists, anti-imperialists, statesmen and politicians of every variety of opinion, men and women especially interested in the American soldier, merchants, missionaries and "jingoes" have been, and continue to be, attentive and, in many cases, anxious observers of every scene of the Philippines drama now in course of development. This book will deal with Oriental America in its above-suggested phases of -public interest. The reader will make a New Year call of January i, 1900, upon the military governor of the Philippines at the old Spanish official palace in the walled city of Manila, and will learn from General Otis the conditions of the archipelago at that interesting period. Running the gauntlet of train-wrecking insurgents he will take a trip over Luzon's only railway, shortly after it had fallen into Ameri- can hands through Aguinaldo's withdrawal in haste from his last pub- licly designated capital at Tarlac. He will inspect Manila, and steam up the Pasig River and upon Laguna de Bay and review our gunboat navy, immediately after its final capture of Santa Cruz. He will journey on a transport through the Visayan and Moro Philippines, visiting the sultan of the Sulu archipelago, and touching also at Iloilo in Panay and at Zamboanga in Mindanao. In search of pertinent precedents for the wisest solution of the Phil- ippines problem the reader will then visit and study conditions in Java and Ceylon, to the end that the lessons taught by the experience of the Dutch and EngHsh islands may guide Luzon's footsteps in safety over a difhcult path. A discussion of various phases of the issue of anti-imperialism, as it figured in the presidential campaign of 1900, and an analysis of the Su- preme Court's insular tariff decisions, and of the status of American "appurtenant territory" thereby created, follow in succession. In con- clusion a review of the legislation of the Fifty-Seventh Congress affect- ing the PhiHppines and of the discussions in and out of Congress over the paramount issues of the archipelago in 1902 and .1903, presents for full and thoughtful consideration the interesting and vitally important question of the wisest national policy to be pursued in governing, de- veloping and guiding the archipelago. Many chapters of the book are reprints, wholly or in part, of extracts from editorial correspondence and articles that have appeared in the Washington Evening Star, based largely on travels in the Philippines, Java and Ceylon in 1899-1900. The American problem in the orient exists today in its essentials as undetermined as in 1900; and much of the discussion of that year needs only additions of corroborative fact and recently developed evidence to bring it to date. These supplements have been added, either in separate chapters or in notes to the reprinted portions of the original corre- spondence. Very clearly the anti-imperialism and anti-expansion campaign in Preface v America is not ended. The decisions of the Supreme Court leave the re- tention of the PhiHppines an open question. Appurtenant territory is at the disposal of Congress. The anti-imperialists have announced that they do not surrender. The democratic party in Congress has com- mitted itself afresh to the program of abandonment of the Philippines after the institution of stable government there. A series of disappoint- ing failures in the extension of civilian control to the provinces ; a new crop of outbreaks by guerrilla insurrectos, suggesting widespread native hostility and treachery ; a blunder in the handling of the friar question in Luzon which would set the people aflame in revolt as in the old days of Spanish rule ; a false step (easily enough made) in Moroland, wounding religious sentiment among the fanatical Mahometans, and driving the ex-pirate chiefs and their followers into a protracted war — such happen- ings (by no means impossible) would inevitably result in the quick pro- motion of anti-imperialism to the dignity of the paramount political issue, and in another national battle of ballots over the retention of the Philippines. Indeed, even without the invitation which would be fur- nished by the occurrence of any of the above-suggested events, an active faction of the democratic party evidently wishes to renew in 1904 the former struggle of 1900. It is hoped that this book may in some degree aid in the adoption and constant maintenance by the republic of that policy in the orient which will result in the winning and retention by America of commercial supremacy in the Pacific without degradation of the national conscience or lowering of national ideals — a policy which shall make the welfare of the people of the islands the primary purpose of the American gov- ernment of the archipelago and the test of its success. The development of the Philippines into a valuable national asset in our commercial and business relations with the world can be accomplished only through an exploitation which applies to people as well as to soil, and which brings prosperity to both. American welfare in the orient and that of the Fili- pinos coincide and are promoted together. The records of Java, and, indeed, of all Asiatic colonizing experiences, teach that the nation cannot permanently and with success selfishly separate its interests from those of its tropical islands, but must profit by sharing in the local prosperity which in co-operation with the Filipinos it will create and increasingly develop. For the national credit and welfare it is hoped that this chapter of our history may display to the world a unique and interesting experiment of successful co-operation between Anglo-Saxon and Malay, American and Filipino, in the promotion of profitable trade, in the highest develop- ment of the resources of a section of the tropics, and in the notable ad- vancement of an Asiatic people, not merely in material prosperity, but primarily and conspicuously in Christian civilization, in personal liberty ,and in intelligent and progressive self-government. CONTENTS CHAPTER I.— LUZON IN 1900. Page. A Chat With the American Military Governor in the Old Spanish Official Pal- ace — Views of General Otis — Conditions and Problems— Chinese Invaders and Dominating Friars— Threatening to Monopolize Labor and Land — Conspicuous Filipinos and Their Characteristics — Difficulties of Military Operations— Amer- ican Patience Needed 1 CHAPTER II.— LUZON IN 1900. A Trip on the Only Railroad in the Philippines— Carabao and Trotting Bulls- Rice, Sugar and Cocoanut Palms — A Train Wrecking Experience — Luzon Needs Absence of Friars and Chinese, and Presence of Schools and Rail- roads—A Talk With General MacArthur 8 CHAPTER III.— LUZON IN 1900. Unanimity of Sentiment Against the Friars— Their Absence an Essential Con- dition of Genuine Peace— Evils of Alien, Ecclesiastical Ownership of Vast Tracts of Land— Anti-American Influence of the Friars— Two Paths of Policy Before Us 15 CHAPTER IV.— LUZON IN 1902. The Changes of Two Tears— Many in the Actors, Few in the Play— American Patience Still Needed— Amnesty for Genuine Amigos; Annihilation for the Bandits— Following Lines of Policy Suggested in 1900— The Need of English and Industrial Education— Title of Monastic Orders to Lands to be Judicially Tested, and Valid Holdings Purchased by Government— No Domination by the Friars and No Absentee Ecclesiastical Landlordism 20 CHAPTER v.— THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES. Surprising and Impressing the Sultan of Sulu— Moro Spear Dance, Kris and Jabul— American Big Guns and Rifles, Ships, Soldiers, Electricity and Ice— A Day in Mahometan America— The Sultan and His Dattos— His Treaty With General Bates— He Would Like to Visit the United States 38 CHAPTER VI.— MORO-AMBRICANS. Evils of Semi-Feudal Slavery and Mahometan Polygamy— Make Haste Slowly to Cure Them— Datto Calvi's Protest Against New Customs Taxes for the Sulus— Sultana's Phonograph CHAPTER VII.— HINTS FROM JAVA. Results That May Well Be Emulated in Luzon— Javanese Malays Will "Work- Java's Land and Labor Opportunities Reserved for the Javanese— Culture Sys- tem in Luzon— Natives as Civil Officials and as Soldiers— Polygamy and Slav- ery CHAPTER VIII.— WILL MALAYS WORK? They Do in Java— They May in the Philippines-Protection for the Natives-Con- trast of Spanish and American Policies Concerning Chinese— Limit Labor Com- petition CHAPTER IX.— EXCLUDE THE CHINESE. The Real Yellow Peril— Fihpino Hostihty to Chinese as Strong and Weil-Found- ed as Ever-Congressional Action on the Subject in Renewal of Law Exclud- ing Chinese From United States-Fresh Evidence Submitted by General Mac- Arthur in His Report of July, 1901-Moros as Workmen-Philippine Commis- sion's Views CHAPTER X.— HINTS FROM CEYLON. Wise Handling of the Public Land in the British Island-Cinghalese and Tamil Laborers-Developed Luzon Can Equal Java or Ceylon in Productiveness- Wealth of the Philippines CHAPTER XL— ORIENTAL LESSONS. How to Dispose to the Best Advantage of the Public Lands-More ^^^^^f-^^^^^^ Better Roads-Ceylon and Java to Hold a Lantern to Guide Luzon s Foot steps— Hustle Not the Mahometan CHAPTER XII.-MANILA'S FUTURE. To Rival All Other Asiatic Cities in Health and Beauty-Our Pacific Ternnna^ City-Needs Cleansing, Smooth Streets, More Schools, Fewer Saloons its Uniaue Attractions 46 57 68 83 88 96 viii Oriental America and its Problems CHAPTER XIII.— HOW TO GOVERN. Page. This Is the Real Philippine Problem, Not Shall We Abandon— A Free Hand for Congress in the Interest of Wise Discriminating Laws for the Filipinos— Flexibility a Vital Need ' ^"'^ CHAPTER XIV.— UfllTED STATES KINDERGARTEN. Territorial Pupils in Primary Class of Republicanism— Uncle Sam a Cruel Des- pot, Who Has Long Bought Men Like Cattle and Ruled Them as Serfs— Con- sent of the Governed ^^^ CHAPTER XV.— CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. Possession of the Philippines May Prevent Its Closing, and Thus Promote Asiatic Trade— American and Filipino Welfare Coincide and Are Promoted Together- Grounds of Annexation 116 THE PHILIPPINES IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1900. CHAPTER XVI.— TRUE ANTI-IMPERIALISM. Antagonistic to Both Great Political Parties— Curious Phases of the Presidential Campaign— Political Platform Duplicity-Genuine Anti-Imperialists Not Caught in the Kansas City Net— The Art of Political Humbuggery 12d CHAPTER XVII.— BOGUS DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE.' , ; ,' ! The Free Coinage Declaration of Repudiation and Disgraceful Isolation— the AMI- ' Imperialist Declaration of Disintegration and Free Secession, of Decadence ' and National Impotency— The Ideal Republic Founded Not on National Dis-' - • honor. Free Secession and Confessed Impotence, But on Sound Money, X>e'-- votion to the Flag, Expansion and Prosperity— True National Greatness ■.;. ISO THE PHILIPPINES AND THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. CHAPTER XVIII.— THE INSULAR TARIFF CASES. What the United States Supreme Court Has Really Decided— The Constitution Follows the Flag- But Does Not Push Ahead in Its Path and Obstruct Its . , Progress — No National Impotency 140 CHAPTER XIX.— AMERICAN APPURTENANT TBRRITORT. Our Political Purgatory and Territorial Limbo— The Status of Appurtenancy— Its Occupants, Their Term of Detention, Their Limitations and Privileges — Bene- fits Derived From This Limbo by the Republic and by the Citizens of Appur- tenant Territory 14C CHAPTER XX.— JOHN MARSHALL, IMPERIALIST. How Would the Great Chief Justice, If Alive, Decide the Insular Tariff Cases? — Analysis of Marshall's Personal and Judicial Tendencies — He Was a Federalist of Federalists— His Judicial Discriminations Against Dependencies, Exalting ' " , the National Power— An Old Problem for the New Century — Marshall Could , Never Sustain the Doctrine of National Impotency 160' THE PHILIPPINES AND THE FIFTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. CHAPTER XXI.-THE SCHURMAN PARADOX. Strange Case of Witness and Advocate Jacob G. Schurman — Facts vs. Opinions — What He Saw and Heard Destroys His Theory— An Advocate of Anti-Imper- ialism, He Testifies in the Same Breath for Imperialism 172 CHAPTER XXII.— A MODERN BALAAM. He Desires to Curse, But Is Forced to Bless American Expansion— Prophet Schur- man— Insurgents Not Moved by Patriotic National Spirit— They Form, Not a Nation, But a Murder Organization Like the Thugs of India or the Assassins of Persia 180 CHAPTER XXIII.-UNCLE SAM'S MRS. CAUDLE. Senator Hoar's Curtain Lecture on the Spanish Treaty— Scolding the Nation— Be- wailing the Irremediable Past and "the Crime of '99"— Which "Repealed the Declaration of Independence, Brutalized the Monroe Doctrine and Murdered the Only Asiatic Republic." 187 CHAPTER XXIV— THE FILIPINO'S BENEFACTOR. America Is Not His Subjugator and Enslaver, But His Emancipator— Uncharita- ble Pessimism— Which on the Same Proof Acquits Jefferson and Lincoln and Convicts McKinley— Senator Hoar Uselessly Belabors His Hideous Artificial Soldan, the Spanish Treaty as His Imagination Conceives It 196 Contents ix CHAPTER XXV.— A PARAMOUNT ISSUE. Page. Shall We Promise Independence, as a Separate Nation, to the Filipinos?— Acts Not Promises— Let Us Bestow at Once Material Prosperity, Personal Liberty and Increasing Self-Government— Promises Will Not Promote Peace, But Will Encourage Hostilities, and Will Postpone and Embarrass Stable Government.. 202 APPENDIX. Treaty of Paris 213 Legislation, March 2, 1901, Providing Temporary Government for Phlhppines.... 215 Act March 8, 1902, Temporarily to Provide Revenue for the Philippines 215-216 Chinese Exclusion Act, April 29, 1902 217 Act July 1, 1902, Temporarily to Provide for the Administration of the Affairs of Civil Government in the Philippines 217 to 229 Amnesty Proclamation of President Roosevelt, July 4, 1902, and Order Terminat- ing Military Governorship and Extending Civil Government Over Archipelago, Except Territory Inhabited by Moro Tribes 230 Constabulary Act of January 30, 1903 231 Currency and Coinage Act of March 2, 1903 231-232 INDEX 233 FOOT NOTES. Mabini and Oath of Allegiance 21 Public Education in 1903.. 25 Road Building and Filipino Relief Appropriation 27 Aglipay, Anti-Friar Revolt .' 37 Sulu Sultap to Visit United States in 1904 45 Tax Exemptions and Concessions in Jolo Archipelago 47 ■Wai-fBetween the Sultan of Jolo and Calvi and Joakinine 50 Status of the Sultan of Jolo in Relation to the United States 52-53 Slavery in the Southern Philippines 54-55 Recent Hostilities in Mindanao 56 Public and Private Lands of the Philippines 84 Surveys and a Public Land Law for the Philippines 88 Prospective Railroads in Luzon and Mindanao 90 Highway Construction in the Archipelago 91 Agriculture in the Philippines, Botanical and Culture Gardens 92-93 The Use of Natives as Soldiers in Constabulary and as Native Scouts 94-95 Street Cleaning, Garbage Disposition and Sewerage of Manila 96 Bonds for Water Supply and Sewerage of Manila 97 Street Railways and Cabs of Manila 97 Benguet .as a Health Resort 99. Anj,er,ican Banks for the Philippines and Asia 102' Improvements of Manila Harbor 102 Manila Botanical Garden 103 Saloons in Manila— None Now on the Escolta 104 Constitutional Status Most Beneficial for Filipinos Is Declared by Court 108 Constituitipnal Guarantees of Personal Rights Legislatively Applied to Filipinos 152 Congressional Tariff Legislation for the Philippines in 1902 157-158 Beneficial Philippine Legislation by Fifty-Seventh Congress 159 Degeneration of Insurrection Into a Murder Conspiracy for Robbery and Assassi- iiation of Filipinos 181 ORIENTAL AMERICA AND ITS PROBLEMS Chapter I LUZON IN 1900 A Chat with the American Military Goveraor in the Old Spanish Official Palace- Views of General Otis— Conditions and Problems— Chinese Invaders and Dominating Friars — Threatening to Monopolize Ijabor and Land — Conspicuous Filipinos and Their Characteristics — Difficulties of Military Operations— American Patience Needed, MANILA, P. I., January 1, 1900. Among my New Year calls of 1900 was a visit to the busiest man in the restful tropics and one of the busiest men in the whole world. The duties and responsibilities which burden the commanding officer of the American army in the Philippines and the military governor of the islands are almost crushing in their weight. Military operations here involve the direction of a force of 65,000 men, so scattered as to cover numerous points in the vast area of the Philippines and con- fronted by varying conditions in the different islands. When distances and difficulties of transportation and numbers of men equipped and moved are considered, this American expedition into tropical Asia ranks among the most notable in military history. Civil administration as governor involves the task of creating a sound and wholesome system adapted to existing conditions and of gradually substituting it for that against which the people have revolted, and, in the interval, in order that anarchy may not exist, of enforcing with absolutely essential modi- fications the old Spanish laws and customs. The combined general and governor has been beset at one time or another, simultaneously or in succession, not only by the insurgents, but by our own impetuous volunteers, who, under the impression that the war was over and anxious to get home, developed (until the situa- tion was made clear to them) the possibility that the republic might be left without an army at the time when one was most needed. Uncle Sam has performed the difficult maneuver of "swapping war horses mid- stream." The governor was beset also by the strong foreign mercantile firms located in Manila, who resented the limitations upon their trade necessarily imposed by the war. He was pulled this way and that by 2 Oriental America and its Problems persons with axes to grind and jobs to develop. He had to create a judicial system, and to assume some of the functions of a law S^J.^^' compelled to enforce the confused Spanish laws while strivmg to codity, correct and revise them in gradual preparation for the substitution ot a modern and American system. He had to become the taxgatherer ot an empire, sitting at the receipt of custom, enforcing Spanish internal revenue and customs laws, and studying them carefully in order that through judicious modifications a reasonable and honestly administered system might be evolved. He had to create local civil governments and an educational system, with hardly an atom of foundation upon which to build. Too often the labor set by the Egyptian of making bricks without straw was imposed upon him. General Otis has attacked the task set for him conscientiously, self- sacrificingly, and with a tremendous capacity for hard work. A fourteen- hour day, instead of one under the eight-hour law, represents his period of labor. New Year did not mean a holiday for the miHtary governor, but it relieved the pressure upon him, so that I was enabled, in the course of a long conversation, to secure from him interesting statements concerning conditions and prospects in the islands. His official headquarters are in the palace of old Manila, on the plaza, next to the cathedral, at the very heart of a walled city, apparently whisked from the surface of southern Spain by some Arabian Nights process and set down in the tropics — with its moat and bastions and its narrow, gloomy streets, showing, on the building line, the blank and forbidding walls of monas- teries and convents or the plain, uninviting exteriors, broken only by cage-Hke, projecting balconies, which bar sight of and entrance to the spacious and attractive interiors of many Spanish homes. , To reach the office of the miHtary governor, on the second floor of the palace, one enters an impressive vestibule and ascends a wide stair- case dominated by a marble statue of Magellan, the Columbus and Cap- tain Cook of the Philippines. Questioned concerning the promise of the new year for the Philip- pines, General Otis said : THE YEAR'S OUTLOOK. "The year opens with favorable conditions and prospects. There is no actual war in the modern sense anywhere in the islands. Fight- ing the Filipinos is not even the most important military problem. Transporting and feeding and caring for our soldiers constitute the great task. Wherever .and under whatever condition the enemy is struck he is scattered. The miHtary campaign is working itself out slowly but surely to an inevitable conclusion. In Luzon, north of Manila, there is no longer any organized army of insurgents ; the outlaw element of that army is dispersed in small bands, whose offenses of mur- der and robbery against their own people are bringing them under the ban of Filipino public sentiment and are causing information to be lodged against them by the natives so that their destruction or conver- sion into permanent 'amigos' is a matter of course in a reasonable period. "While I may not speak definitely of projected military movements, it is certain that during the dry season the same process of dispersion and compulsory disintegration which has been applied to the insurgent forces north of Manila will be extended to the entire island, including Cavite Luzon in 1900 3 and adjacent provinces, where the last considerable concentration of fighting Tagalogs is being effected. AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD BE PATIENT. "Patience should be a prominent feature now of the public attitude toward the military campaign. A very trying period both for the sol- diers and the people has been reached. A misunderstanding of condi- tions here will easily lead to unreasonable criticism. It is to be remem- bered that the Filipinos no longer face the Ariierican soldiers. If they are in danger of being cornered they hide their arms and appear in peaceful white as the most conciliatory of amigos. The Spanish method was not only to kill insurgents caught in arms, but to devastate the of- fending district and to shoot down on suspicion these nominal non-com- batants. American public sentiment would not permit a duplication of this method. Filipinos captured while bearing arms are relieved of their rifles and after a period of detention are released. It does not pay us to keep them and care for them. The Filipino military need is not men, but arms and ammunition. Tagalog armed opposition seems to dissi- pate as our force approaches, but as that force passes by or withdraws the Filipino bandit reappears, and if our soldiers return to the starting point instead of pushing forward he celebrates a victory. This kind of warfare is exasperating to the soldiers, and from its apparent unproduc- tiveness of results arouses the impatience of the public. Two or three regiments could march anywhere in Luzon and destroy everything which Aguinaldo could oppose to them. While the real war is oyer, the need of a large and vigilant army here has not passed. The process of weeding out the robber bands will be slow and tedious, but the result is sure. NATIVE CONFIDENCE INCREASING. "With an increased cavalry force, with a steadily enlarging knowl- edge of the topography of the islands, with a vigorous, pushing policy on our part, and with a decrease of FiUpino sympathy for the robber bands, which, flying before the Americans, have brutally turned their weapons against their countrymen, the pacification of the islands will be hastened. Whole sections need only to be convinced of the perma- nence of American protection against the local banditti to co-operate heartily with us. They have been deterred, and are still to some extent, by the fear that after a while the American soldiers will be removed to some other point and that they will be exposed to the murderous fury of the cutthroats who are threatening with death all who show a friendly spirit toward Americans. The contrast between our conduct toward the people and that of Spanish or insurgent soldiers is appreciated and confidence in us is steadily increasing. Insurgent leaders themselves while in the field have placed their families in the security of American protection at Manila. MILITARY PROBLEMS MISUNDERSTOOD. "Misunderstanding of the conditions here and lack of knowledge, to be obtained only by presence on the ground and by a general view of the whole situation, have caused criticism of the apparently purposeless policy of capturing and abandoning towns many times in succession. The vital point of attack was not the town, but the concentrating Filipi- nos, and not so much the FiHpinos themselves as the arms and ammuni- 4 Oriental America and its Problems tion which they carried. Our comparatively small force, occupying a long, thin line, could not afford to permit the enemy to concentrate at any adjacent and threatening point, and was compelled to take the initia- tive and to strike wherever he showed a disposition to assemble in force. If the concentration movement was prevented, if the Filipinos were dis- persed with losses, and arms and ammunition were captured, the action was successful, even though through lack of garrisoning force or on ac- count of the undesirability of its occupation for military purposes the village of nipa huts at which the engagement occurred was not held after the Filipinos were chased out. With the increased force of sol- diers now in the islands it will be possible to garrison and hold all points of strategic value." "Must civil development await the complete destruction of the robber bands ?" CIVIL GOVERNMENT NEED NOT WAIT. "No. The military operations have already reached the stage where their problems are surpassed in importance by those of civil administra- tion. It is much to be desired that Congress should act promptly upon the President's suggestion in this respect, to the end that order may be evolved from chaos. The problem is to build up a structure republican in form upon an inadequate and unreliable foundation. The start upon substantially self-supporting municipal governments has been made, and at many points these are groping toward the light. The outline of a simple form of local government has been framed and put in practical operation wherever feasible. There is a steady, though slow, increase in the degree of Filipino co-operation in such governments. The mass of Aguinaldo's followers are young and irresponsible. Property owners of intelligence already sympathize with the Americans, but, as I have already said, they are in many cases terrorized by the Aguinaldists, who promise death to them as soon as the Americans retire. With the garri- soning of the towns this fear will be dissipated, and the progress of civil government, of education, and of the reign of reasonable and fixed law will then be hastened. American protection, schools and local self-gov- ernment will go hand in hand. There are many intelligent Filipinos, in whom I have the fullest confidence as the developers of the future of the Philippines under the protection and with the inspiration of the spirit of the great republic. TRADE TO BE POSTERED. "An important civil problem has been to preserve and foster the trade of the islands so far as consistent with successful military opera- tions. All of northern Luzon, including the tobacco region tributary to Aparri, is now open to trade, and today the embargo has been removed from many ports of importance in the southern islands, including a few hemp ports. Pacification of Luzon south of Manila through military movements will soon open up this section also. Every effort has been made to interfere as little as possible with the natural flow of trade, but military necessities and the demands of commercial activity and prosper- ity are frequently at variance." At this point in the interview a dispatch was brought to General Otis which stated that Aguinaldo's wife and sister had just been made prisoners in north Luzon, and that Aguinaldo himself was being Luzon in 1900 5 chased from rancherio to rancherio, with some prospects of his capture. Practically all of Aguinaldb's people are now in custody, and only his presence here is needed for a happy family reunion in Manila. Many of Aguinaldo's cabinet ofificers and his civil and military lieutenants have also been captured. In response to a question concerning Aguinaldo's character and in- fluence and the importance of his associates, General Otis said : AGUINALDO'S CHARACTER AND LVFLUENCE. "Aguinaldo's prestige and influence with the Filipinos have been very great. Even now the lowest class endow him with superhuman attributes, including immunity from bullets, but his hold has weakened among the more intelligent Filipinos, and he has been denounced among them as a mountebank. From the time that he returned to Cavite in May, 1898, and became subject to Mabini's inspiration he had never the intention of co-operating faithfully with the United States, except in so far as the republic would be useful to him in holding Spain helpless while he worked his scheme of self-aggrandizement. Some of his associates were mere mercenaries ; others were ambitious for power. Mabini was the master spirit, able, radical, uncompromising. He furnished the brains which made Aguinaldo's cabinet formidable. He was brought before me recently, paralytic and a prisoner. I offered him his freedom on parole not to stir up trouble ; he hesitated and said : 'I have not changed my convictions.' "I told him that I did not respect him the less on that account, and repeated the offer. " 'I have no means of support ; I cannot put my freedom to any use/ be replied. "Buencamino is a professional turncoat, everything in turn and nothing long. He has been an officer in the Spanish army and was sec- retary of state in Aguinaldo's cabinet when he was captured. "Paterno, who is not yet in custody, has played a curious role. He arranged the treaty by which Spain bought off Aguinaldo and his asso- ciates in the revolution of 1896. He demanded from Spain money and a title of Castile, prince or duke, as the price of his achievement. After the United States intervened he again appeared as the agent of Spain in a proclamation which pronounced monarchy the fitting government for the Filipinos, and advised them to side with Spain against America, recognizing Spanish sovereignty. Next after this tribute to monarchy he appeared as candidate for president of Aguinaldo's revolutionary congress and was elected. LUXA. PIIA.R AXD AHEI.LANO. "Luna was a strong, determined character, an unyielding fighter, a general of considerable ability. The others were afraid of him. He was building up a power distinct from that of Aguinaldo. He was assassi- nated at the latter's quarters. Pio de Pilar is a robber. Leader of a gang of bandits before he became one of Aguinaldo's leading generals, he is now back in his old and congenial occupation. One of the ablest of the Filipinos is Arellano, who was Aguinaldo's first secretary of state, but withdrew after a short service, an unbeliever in Filipino indepen- dence. He is now the respected president of the Filipino supreme court established by the American government in Manila." 6 Oriental America and its Problems "Is it necessary or desirable to permit _the Chinese to furnish the labor required to develop the Philippines?" > CHINESE LABOR UNDESIRABLE. "Xo. The Chinese would flood the islands and destroy the oppor- tunity for the development of the Filipinos which would arise from pre- serving for them a wide range of industrial employments. Though many thousands of Chinamen are settled in the islands, conducting business enterprises, both wholesale and retail, and employed also in the hardest form of manual labor, and though there has been considerable intermix- ture of the races, there exists an old hereditary prejudice between them, resulting often in bloodshed. The Chinaman can outwit the Filipino as a trader, but takes his chances of being robbed and murdered by the latter when the appeal is to brute force. This active race enmity is to be taken into account. But above all, in the interest of the Filipinos and of their development and material prosperity, the Chinamen should be prevented from coming here in large numbers. If our workingmen in the United States need this protection, much more it is required by the prospective workingmen among the people who own the soil of the American islands in the Pacific." THE MONASTIC ORDERS. One of the most important questions to be dealt with here is that of the relations of the monastic orders and the Filipinos. The charge against the former by the latter is that they have acquired large real estate holdings by fraud, and that, as the absolute masters by usurpation of the life, honor and property of the Filipinos, they have so used their power that they became the primary cause of the Philippine revolution. The Filipinos demanded and secured from the Spanish governor general, in the agreement of Biac na Bato, the promise of expulsion of the monastic orders from the islands. This is their primary aspiration. The indications have been that until this should be attained they would fight, whether Spain, the United States or Germany held the sovereignty of the islands. General Otis said in reply to a question on this point : "This will be one of the most difficult questions of all to settle wisely and satisfactorily. Insurgent leaders, in order to keep alive hostility to Americans, have pictured us to their followers as the aUies of the friars, determined to restore them to power, and have inaccurately represented me as an ardent Romanist in the power of the priests. GENERAL OTIS AND THE FRIARS. "In pursuance of instructions I tried to secure the release of the friars imprisoned by the insurgents, and I was accused on that account of being in partnership with the archbishop. The question of titles to real estate in the PhiHppines, whether claimed by ecclesiastics or laymen, will have, I believe, to be very thoroughly and exhaustively examined and studied, and this will be no quick and easy task. I do not believe that there will be confiscation by the government of any property held by the monastic orders or by anybody to which record title is perfect. So far as the return of the friars is concerned, the matter would seem to be really in the hands of the Filipino Catholics themselves. The friars are now practically expelled, and unless the Filipinos, undergoing a change of sentiment, assent to their return, it would seem that the Luzon in 1900 7 Roman Catholic Church, in its own interest, as well as for the welfare of the Filipinos, would see to it that the church's recognized representatives in the islands were not violently distasteful to the people whom they seek to guide." A>; ACTIVE CAMPAIGN IN SOUTH LUZON. Before my departure from the palace further information was re- ceived concerning the concentration of insurgents in Luzon south of Manila, and an additional regiment was at once ordered to the point afifected. A general movement southward, planned before General Lawton's universally mourned death, is about to be carried out under the immediate direction of General Bates, who is to succeed to General Lawton's command. There are three or four thousand insurgents now assembled and intrenched in Cavite province, and it is hoped, but hardly expected, that they will make a stand and give battle there. It is more likely, however, that the American sword will cut through a spectral, illusive figure, striking nothing substantial. General Bates has just per- formed the diplomatic feat, without firing a gun, of pacifying, tem- porarily, and during a crucial period, the southern islands of the archi- pelago, peopled largely by the Mahometan Moros. The amnesty procla- mation, which will indicate the termination of actual war with the Fili- pinos as a people, will doubtless prepare the way for earnest efforts on our part to remove the spirit of distrust and hostility toward us from the Filipino heart by meeting and satisfying the reasonable aspirations of the people for relief from the burden of Spanish misrule, ecclesiastical and political, under which they have groaned for centuries and against which they have revolted. Chapter II LUZON IN 1900 A Trip on the Only Railroad in the Philippines— Carabao and Trotting Bulls— Rice. Sugar and Cocoanut Palms— A Train-wrecking Experience- Luzon Needs Absence of Friars and Chinese, and Presence of Schools and Railroads— A Talk With Gen- eral MacArthur. MANILA, P. I., January 24, 1900. Rapid transit in Luzon is typified by the carabao or water buffalo, which furnishes the universal motive power for inland heavy transporta- tion. The carabao is impressively big and exasperatingly slow, ^sop missed the mark when he selected the tortoise instead of the water buf- falo as the representative of the slow-but-sure class to race against the hare. Luzon boasts only one hundred and twenty miles of railroad, a large section of which has been until comparatively recently in the hands of the insurgents. Lacking a sufficiency of railroad and pack-mule facili- ties, the American army here has been compelled to utiHze the carabao as the quartermaster's main reliance for inland movements, and. in con- nection with every campaign large numbers of these animals have been impressed, many being taken without notice, but of course with com- pensation for use to their owners, from the streets of Manila. Luzon's railroad is now in American possession, and army mules are arriving in numbers and dwarfing the little native ponies as much as their drivers do the average Filipino. Consequently the carabao may soon be relegated largely to private and domestic uses, and with a thorough railroad system to be constructed here through American capital and enterprise, the engine will be substituted for the water buf- falo a-s the type of Filipino rapid transit in the new century. In January, not many weeks after the capture of Tarlac, the clearing of the railroad line between Manila and Dagupan, and the running of trains by Americans over the entire route, I made this interesting trip, traversing one of the richest and most populous sections of Luzon, pass- ing through the scene of the severest fighting that occurred in the Fili- pino outbreak, touching at Several of Aguinaldo's successive capitals, and running the gauntlet of the bands of train wreckers and robbers into which the Filipino army in this part of Luzon has been disintegrated and dispersed. TTNOU! SAM RUNS A RAILROAD. The Manila-Dagupan railroad is temporarily abandoned by its own- ers to the quartermaster's department of the United States army. Two trains are sent out every morning from each terminus, which are sup- posed to make the run to the other end of the line before night. One of the two trains, starting from each end of the line, is for the use of natives, with open and closed cars, freight cars, coal cars and box cars, anything on wheels that can keep to the track, all packed with Filipinos and their accompanying bundles and boxes. The other is the military train, carrying supplies, including distilled water in large cans for the different army posts, mails, officers and soldiers. Transportation is gratuitous on both trains, passes from the quartermaster's department Luzon in 1900 9 being the substitute for tickets. The running of the native train permits some slight resumption of trade and communication, and gives the FiH- pino cause to appreciate the value of having the line in operation and suggests the inexpediency of destroying the railroad property. The native train in every case runs ahead of the other, and thus to some cxt tent guarantees the safety of the latter from wrecking, on the principle of Punch's plan of insuring against railway accidents by fastening two directors of the road to the cowcatcher of each engine. The groups of bandits into which the Filipinos still in the field in north Luzon are now scattered do not, however, make nice discriminations of nationality, and, as we found before the day was over, are apparently as ready to kill and rob their own covmtrymen as they are to destroy the Americans. At nine o'clock, an hour after the departure of the native train, we started on our journey. An antiquated third-class car, labeled officers' car, supplies to the favored civilian passenger a seat, if one is unoccupied. The car is divided into four compartments, entered at the side, and the narrow wooden seats, facing each other, bring your knees in close con- tact with those of your neighbor opposite, and are hard and uncomfort- able. About eight hours are required to make the run of one hundred and twenty miles when schedule time is observed, which does not often happen. The deficiencies in the equipment of the road are due to the fact that nearly all of the old roUing stock lies in wreck alongside the tracks, twisted, burned, useless, a most conspicuous feature of the scenery as viewed from the train. When the Filipinos were compelled to abandon the railroad line they destroyed, as they thought, the rolling stock in their possession. They started engines under full steam toward each other on the same track, and relied on the collision to render them use- less. They demolished vital parts of the engines, and they cut and burned the woodwork of the cars. But they did not make sufficient allowance for American mechanical readiness and inventiveness. Rail- road men among our soldiers quickly straightened out and put together, patched and disfigured, but still available, enough of the rolling stock to serve to utilize the road for miHtary purposes. RICE FIELDS AND BATTLEFIELDS. In leaving Manila the train passed through Tondo, the native nipa hut section of the city, where so many houses were burned at the time of the Filipino outbreak in February of last year. Some vacant spaces are still visible in the burned section, but the streets swarm with people and many of the huts have been replaced. Soon we are skirting Manila Bay, then passing through native villages, whose entire population, ap- parently, turns out to see and to shout at the moving train. Now we are among rice fields, where green ridges of raised earth inclose, restrain and give access to the flooded rice beds and spread over the landscape a symmetrical checkerboard. Along the entire course of the railroad, and especially in the southern section, are frequent reminders of the Filipino outbreak. We pass vil- lage after village, where the Filipinos made temporary stands, assaulted and taken by our troops, and then abandoned, to be retaken later. Here are lines of insurgent trenches, and here the ruins of buildings destroyed in the fighting. The signs of such destruction are more painfully con- lo Oriental America and its Problems spicuous than they were last April in Cuba along the line of the Habana- Matanzas Railway. At Caloocan (a name which, like others to be mentioned, will be recognized as familiar by the careful readers of the war dispatches) we overtook the native train, whose engine had weakened in some way, and after a halt we went on ahead of it. Among the passengers in the native train were the coquettish Filipino wife of an American minor officer, who was himself traveling in the military train, and also the members of a native band from Calasiao, whose instruments of bamboo were ingeni- ously made and skillfully handled. Now we are at Malolos, Aguinaldo's capital during his dictatorship, his period of glory and of high-sounding proclamations. At the station he're, in addition to the omnipresent soldier and the native venders of hard-boiled eggs, bananas, cakes, water, beer and ginger ale, was a long line of Filipino vehicles to convey visitors to the main village. FU-NSTUN DID NOT SWIJI. We cross the river at Calumpit, the scene of Funston's exploit. We know now positively, however, that the hero of the occasion did not swim the stream. The historic painting must picture him, like Washing- ton crossing the Delaware, as the central figure on a boat or raft. The result will be more artistically effective, as well as more approximately truthful, to substitute for the dripping, struggling form of the swimmer the erect figure of the American officer, wrapped, perhaps, in the stars and stripes, with one hand on his heart and the other pointing unflinch- ingly to the opposite shore, while the fire of a high and determined pur- pose gleams in his eagle eye. The streams crossed at frequent intervals along the entire route are in most cases tributaries either of the Rio Grande de Pampanga, which flows southward into the Bay of Manila, or of the Rio Agno, which flows northward into Lingayen Gulf. They furnish their share of obstruc- tions to the northern march of the American soldiers in conjunction with the swamps and bottomless mud of the rice region, and the expanses of stiff grass farther north, which often stretched higher than a man's head, and which so resisted passage that to force a way through them for any considerable distance was exhausting even to the strongest. COLD-BLOODED 3ITJRDER OP PEISOXEKS. At Angeles, where General Grant is stationed, the north-bound and south-bound trains cross, if nothing has happened to either of them to interfere with the schedule. The officers and soldiers at this station were excited and indignant over the murderous action of a large band of Fili- pinos, whose refuge was in Mount Aryat, which loomed up apparently close at hand across the plain. During almost the entire railroad trip this mountain dominates the scene, as Mount Shasta does in the eyes of the traveler traversing northern CaHfornia. The Filipinos collected on Mount Aryat had just been attacked by an American expedition, and, before running away, had taken out and slaughtered five American pris- oners, captured stragglers picked up by them individually and separately. The country traversed by the railroad is wonderfully fertile, capable of producing large crops and of sustaining a vast population. At first come the rice fields, then the land of the sugar cane and of cocoanut palms, to which are later added stretches of pasturage and the home of Luzon in 1900 11 the Luzon trotting bull. Still farther north than the terminus of the rail- road is the tobacco-growing section, and in the southern end of the island are the hemp districts. It is hard to believe, however, that any other portions of Luzon are more attractive, from the agricultural point of view, than the railroad-traversed provinces where rice and sugar cane flourish. The lead-colored, heavy-horned carabao is the characteristic animal of the country. He is seen everywhere, drawing heavy burdens, drag- ging the plow, enacting the role of coach horse or riding horse, or, in his moments of leisure, wallowing luxuriously in muddy water. At Bayambang one of the station peddlers was mounted on a cara- bao. Behind him and his competitors in trade stretched the main street of the village, lined with cocoanut palms. A picturesque rivulet flowed parallel with this street, and at right angles to it and on the other side of the stream extended another road, on which two carabao teams were outlined in profile, each carabao mounted by a small boy and each drawing an open framework wagon, containing, apparently, vegetables and fruit. For the background of the picture first came banana trees ; then, in the rear, rising higher and higher in successive stages until the green barrier seemed to shut out the sky, appeared magnificent palms. A LIFE-S.\VIXG ACCIDENT. Our engine had been growing feebler and feebler in its northward journey, losing time steadily until we were far behind the schedule, and darkness was at hand, when at Murcia it gave out completely, an acci- dent which caused vigorous and universal grumbling at the time, but which undoubtedly saved many lives. The nearest engine available for our use was at Bautista, not very far from the north terminus of the road. In response to a telegram this engine came southward toward Murcia. About five miles from Bautista it ran into two logs of wood that were laid across the track. Near Tar- lac, the station north of Murcia, it encountered a bunch of wire, evidently placed there with the idea of entangling the wheels. Finally, while back- ing slowly down between Tarlac and Murcia, it suddenly left the rails and turned over on its side. The crew jumped from the engine and raced for their lives down the track to Murcia, some three miles distant, where they gave the alarm. The train wreckers, hidden in the bushes, where signs of their presence were afterwards found, did not interfere with the engine's crew. They had taken out a rail just south of a bridge across a creek with very high banks, and hadso placed it upon the track as inevi- tably to throw a north-bound train into the bed of the stream or into a deep ditch running parallel with the track. They were not expecting an arrival from the north, and in their surprise, and perhaps in their fear of a possible trap, they remained where they were until the soldiers, re- sponding to the alarm, approached from Murcia, when they disappeared in the jungle. Nearly all of the company at Murcia went out in pursuit of the train- wrecking insurgents, and the suggestion spread among those who were left behind that the bandits who had recently stolen thirty rifles and much ammunition from the army post at Tarlac might take advantage of the absence of the soldiers to attack the train and Murcia station. But the train robbers were running, not fighting, that night, and our slum- bers in the cold air on the floor of the third-class officers' car were peace- 1 2 Oriental America and its Problems ful and undisturbed, at least so far as annoyances from insurrectos were concerned. In the morning I joined a small party who resolved not to wait at Murcia for the arrival of the wrecking train from Manila and the clear- ing of the track, but to push ahead in a hand car until overtaken by the train. Our motive power was derived from Filipinos and Chinese, some running on the ties and pushing from behind, and some standing on the car and poling expertly with long bamboo rods. THROUGH T.!UILAC WOODS OX A HAND CAR. Our hand car started at a rapid pace and we quickly covered the three miles to the wreck, around which the hand car was carried. Care- ful examination of the work of the train robbers brought the conviction that a north-bound train leaving the track here would surely have been piled in wreck in the bed of the stream. The native train, which in ordi- nary course would precede the military, and had a comparatively small guard, carried on this occasion several thousand dollars in silver, as well as many bundles and boxes of goods, and the motive of the wreckers seems to have been solely that of the train robber — to make this rich haul without any regard whatsoever as to the nationality of the individ- uals to be murdered or robbed. Beyond the wreck our car was driven between the dense and gloomy woods and jungle which hemmed in both sides of the track for three miles to Tarlac. The jungle of Tarlac woods is the lurking place of the local banditti, and as there was a possibility that some of the gentry might be tempted to attack our small party, we urged our somewhat winded pushers and polers to extra efforts by means of all the polyglot injunctions to speed with which our experiences with 'rickshaw men and carromatta drivers had rendered us familiar. Tarlac is the latest of Aguinaldo's capitals. Since he was chased from that village, at a comparatively recent date, he has never stopped publicly at any point long enough for it to receive full recognition as a new capital. At the present time the American authorities would very much like to know the location of his seat of government, whether in north Luzon, south Luzon, Hongkong, Singapore or Paris. In Tarlac there is opportunity to inspect the buildings used by the insurgent government and the houses occupied by the various American generals (including General Wheeler) who have been stationed here. An interesting market was in full blast during our visit, and I invested in a package containing the leaf, the lime and the nut which constitute the ingredients of betel chewing. The most curious of Tarlac's sights was that of a group of native fishermen, men and boys, in the Tarlac River, with spears, bows and arrows and a clumsy hand trap, all of which they used successfully as substitutes for the angler's rod and fly and for the net. At an army post several miles beyond Tarlac, across the great wash- out of the river, we abandoned our handcar and waited for and finally took the native train, and by it proceeded to the end of our railway trip northward in Luzon. A TALK WITH GENERAL MACAKTHtR. Before I returned to Manila I called upon General MacArthur, who is in command in this district, with headquarters at Bautista. This thor- Luzon in iqco 13 ough soldier and clear-headed administrator thinks well of the capabiH- ties of the Filipinos, but warns against going ahead too fast in the at- tempt to. impose the American system and methods upon an Asiatic peo- ple, at this time sensitive and distrustful. The local civil governments which are being established will, he thinks, prove excellent schools of in- struction in American methods. General MacArthur pointed out that many of the rich mestizos — half-castes with Chinese blood — who, next to the Spaniards, have been in control in Luzon, are to be reckoned as an obstructive factor in our solution of the Philippine, problem. They have no desire for American methods with honest administration for the benefit of the whole people. They have bought special privileges and exemptions from the executive and judicial representatives under the Spanish rule, when the occasion required, and the proposition that they shall be treated like every one else under a system of even-handed justice, which aims to benefit the peo- ple and not a few individuals, comes as a shock and a disappointment to such persons. Concerning the land problem, General MacArthur thinks that there should be a properly constituted court — like the Court of Claims — which, upon formal application, will look into questions of title in respect to the tracts claimed by the monastic orders. He is of the opinion that the Chinese must not be allbwed to come in to any greater extent than in the United States. Labor openings and opportunities must be guarded and preserved for the Filipinos, and they must be judiciously pushed into work. We are not to conduct Philip- pine afifairs with immediate personal gain to ourselves in view, but are to so regulate conditions that the material prosperity of the Filipinos may be enhanced. The English firms which control Philippine trade naturally wish Chinese cheap and reliable labor in unlimited quantities, but for the good of the Filipinos, which is the motive for our intervention, the Chi- nese must not be permitted to come in without restriction and to drive the Filipinos entirely out of the labor field. WHAT THE FILIPIXOS THINK. At Calasiao I had a talk with the local presidente or^ mayor, under the civil government instituted by the Americans. He is an intelligent Spanish-speaking Filipino of some education and of wide, practical busi- ness experience. He had lived in Manila and Dagupan and had con- ducted business operations in the intervening region. He had dealt in rice, sugar and tobacco, and at the time of the insurrection had an inter- est in three distilleries of bino, the native drink. The insurrectos took possession of the distilleries and used the metal of the machinery for cartridges and other military purposes. The presidente represented the principal need and desire of the Filipinos to be education, the establish- ment of schools, especially industrial schools, in which English shall be taught as the most useful commercial language. The detestation of the Filipinos, said the presidente, is the friars (frailes), who kept the natives blind in education (vividly indicated by the presidente's gesture, which covered the eyes with the hand), and who robbed, seduced and mur- dered. The Spanish governor agreed with Aguinaldo that the friars should go. They must go, the presidente continued, or there will be a constant, if petty, warfare, or a succession of outbreaks, no matter who exercises sovereignty in the land. 14 Oriental America and its Problems The country needs also, he added, railroads, wagon roads, commer- cial development, protection of life and property. If these benefits, ni- cluding the expulsion of the friars, are enjoyed, the great majority of the Filipinos will be pacified. There will be little danger of serious uprismgs. The people will consider their condition practically as good as that of the Americans themselves. A special item, he indicated, under the head of protection of Hfe and property, would be the assurance of continued security to those who are willing to co-operate with the Americans, who are threatened with death now and who will be killed to a certainty if the Americans withdraw. In response to a question the presidente replied that the Filipinos had not taken into account the probability of the absorption of the Philip- pines by Germany, through purchase from Spain, if the United States had not retained the islands. He added that the Filipinos had expected to accompHsh by obstinate insurrection the expulsion of the friars and other promised reforms even under Spanish rule. HOPEFUL BtT XOT CERTAIN OF AMERICAN BENEFICEN'CE. The presidente was not at all hypocritical in effusive admiration of and confidence in the benefits and blessings of American control. His strongest expression concerning the relations of America to the Filipinos was one of hopefulness, based upon American history and principles. He was inclined to think that America would be more liberal and con- siderate toward the Filipinos than Germany or any other foreign power. In response to my request he pointed out defects in the printed plan of local civil government, of which he is an administrative officer. Cer- tain criminal provisions are ineffective through uncertainty. Civil pro- cedure is in substance merely arbitration, suits being dependent upon the willingness of defendants to be sued. In some respects the attitude of this presidente is typical of that of those Filipinos who are disposed to co-operate with the United States with whom I have conversed or concerning whose opinions I have se- cured reliable information in other ways. Not all lay the same stress upon education. Indeed, General Hughes, who is in command in the Visayan or central Philippine Islands, whom I met at lloilo, does not believe that there is much spontaneous desire among the Filipinos for schools, and thinks that our system of public education in the Philippines must be compulsory. While in charge at Manila General Hughes started the pubHc school system there, and he has had other opportunities for instructive observation. But whether the FiHpinos are thirsting for free schools' and liberal education, or whether the mass of them care little for such instruction and merely send their children for a time while the schools are a novelty in order to please their American rulers and in obedience to the will of the native presi- dentes, the fact remains, to which all assent, that these schools must be everywhere established and maintained. Chapter III LUZON IN 1900 Unanimity of Sentiment Against the Friars— Their Absence an Essential Condition of Genuine Peace— Evils of Alien, Ecclesiastical Ownership of Vast Tracts of Land- Anti-American Influence of the Friars^ Two Paths of Policy Before TJs. Concerning the friars there is a substantial unanimity of sentiment, which must make an impression upon every one. I have been disap- pointed in my expectation that I would find the Filipinos, outside of the hostile fraction in arms, full of confidence in the Americans and heartily welcoming their control. Their attitude is apparently one of anxious expectancy, tinged with more or less of hopefulness, according to the individual disposition. I believe that this doubt concerning the benefit of American control is based more upon uncertainty concerning our policy in regard to the friars than in respect to any other issue whatso- ever, even that of full self-government. I do not think that there will be genuine peace, happiness and pros- perity in the Philippines if we attempt, and as long as we continue, to enact Spain's role as the ally and backer of the friars. The monastic orders and Spain have been identical in the Philippines. The archbishop here has always been more powerful than the governor general. In any conflict the individual opposed to the friars inevitably went to the wall. The vast tracts of valuable land to which the orders lay claim were in part obtained through the government and by virtue of this ecclesiastical control of the government, and to this extent the ecclesiastical land is still virtually government property, and would nat- urally pass to the United States by the cession from Spain. The treaty of Paris is so worded, however, as to render difficult a solution of the problem, which recognizes the truth that the Spanish government and the monastic orders in the Philippines are one and inseparable. Article 8, in which Spain cedes all public property in the Philippines, says: "Although quite unnecessary to do so, it is hereby declared that the ces- sion stipulated shall in no way affect the property and rights accorded by custom or law to the peaceful holders of goods of any sort in the provinces, cities, public or private establishments, civil or ecclesiastical corporations, or any other collectivity which has any legal right to ac- quire goods or rights in the ceded or abandoned territories, and the same applies to the rights and properties of individuals of every nationality whatsoever." Would land, which was in equity public property, but title to which had been placed in the monastic orders, which in effect repre- sented Spain in governing the Philippines, pass to the United States by this cession? Assuming what is probably the truth, that the United States will not attempt to interfere in any manner which would savor of confiscation with property to which the monastic orders can establish valid record title, the friars claim that they must go to the various parts of the Philip- pines to administer this property, and must be protected there by the United States government as peaceful, law-abiding citizens, claiming and exercising only their conceded rights. 1 6 Oriental America and its Problems WILL UXCLF, SAM FORCE FRIARS OX THE FILIPINOS? But the United States is now in military occupation of the Philippines and is engaged not only in overcoming hostile forces, but in removing causes of continuing hostilities. The monastic orders have been by their acts the primary cause of the revolt of the people, who have fought Spain because she identified herself with the friars, and who will, I beheve, con- tinue to rise against us if we make common cause with those who are hateful in their sight. The friars have been driven from the provinces, and practically all who have not left the islands are collected in Manila under American protection. They have been in effect expelled by the Filipinos. If they go back it will be because the United States, on the plea of preserving their civil rights, forces them with the aid of our soldiers' rifles upon the Filipinos. The military authorities engaged in a labor of pacification cannot permit individuals, whether ecclesiastical or lay, to go back to the villages who are hated by the people for alleged crimes, and whose pres- ence will tend to keep alive hostilities and to lead to homicides or other breaches of the peace. As a military precaution, incidental to the army occupation of the islands, the protection of the United States should be refused to the friars. If the monastic orders have committed a fraction of the offenses of which the Filipinos believe them to be guilty, they are lightly punished by exile from the Philippines. The Filipino hatred of the friars is not directed against them as Roman Catholics. The mass of the Filipinos are nominal Catholics, and there is no religious revolt whatsoever. The churches are well attended. For example, I observed hundreds flocking at an early hour in the morn- ing to mass at the church in Calasiao. The Roman Catholic Church will in its own interest do well to consider how far it is wise to alienate a Catholic population by attempting to force upon the people as its repre- sentatives men who are feared and detested. Of course generalizations about the friars as a body will fail to fit the cases of some individual priests, who, as good men, may be personally acceptable to their parishes. But on the broad question of making the cause of the friars its own the decision of the Roman Church is eagerly awaited, both by the Filipino people and by the Protestant denominations of the world, which are ready to take advantage of any blunder in policy which may be com- mitted. AXTI-AMEEIOAN IXFLtJENCE OF THE FRIAKS. There is no reason why American Catholics should side with the friars. These men are Spaniards, with more than the natural national grudge against us. They are the essence of Spanish misgovernment in the Philippines, which we have overthrown. They hate us and spit upon our flag. In most cases, if returned to the villages, they will become centers of anti-American sentiment and influence. If Luzon is to be gradually Americanized this task will be aided, so far as the influence of the Roman Church extends, only through English-speaking priests. In Panay, as in Luzon, the monastic orders claim ownership of the most valuable lands in the island, and have been driven out by the peo- ple. Speaking to me on this subject at Iloilo, General Hughes said tha. in his opinion the Catholic Church should put in every parish a sensible English-speaking priest, to dispel gradually the prei idice against tht Spanish friars and to counteract the influence of the i.ative priests, whc are almost all insurrectos, and in many cases ignorant 'end corrupt. Luzon in 1900 17 Every one who undergoes the experiences of the railroad trip to Dagnpan becomes unfaiUngly the enthusiastic advocate of the pohcy of discriminating as soon as possible between the scattered Filipino bands still in arms and the insurgent army. Treat the war against the latter organization as over, declare amnesty, maintain no grudge or animosity against former hostiles submitting in good faith, and by prompt fulfill- ment in specific shape of general promises of good government and re- dress of old Spanish grievances make such submission easy and perma- nent. On the other hand, the wandering bands, who kill and rob Fili- pinos as well as Americans, who attempt to wreck and pillage even na- tive trains, and who brutally murder their American prisoners when closely pursued, should be treated, when captured, not as prisoners of war, but as bandits, to be pursued and exterminated like train wreckers and similar murderous robbers in our western states. This policy is in the interest and for the protection of the Filipinos as well as of the Americans. THE coxDrrioxs of gextjixe peace. While declaring that the Filipino war is over, let us remember that it is not over permanently or in truth unless we take advantage of the oppor- tunity to remove as far as possible the causes of war. By dispersing the insurgent army we have gained the chance, hitherto lacking, to demonstrate to the people of the Philippines the good faith of our as- surances and the beneficence of our control. Certain Filipino leaders have endeavored to seize arbitrary power in the islands for themselves, raising the delusive cry of independence. War has determined that their ambitions are not to be gratified. But there is nothing in the results of the war which alters the attitude of the United States toward the Fili- pino people. The republic is still bound to correct as far as possible the evils of Spanish misrule and to satisfy the reasonable aspirations of the Fihpinos for better and freer government. As the first step which counts, let us settle the question of excluding the friars as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the people. The agreement of Biac na Bato represented the minimum of redress of grievances which would conciliate the Filipinos. What Spain promised let us fulfill. To accompHsh this result with a minimum of infringement upon the abstract rights of the friars is a problem for our statesmanship. It ought to be efifected through the Roman Catholic Church itself ; but in one way or another it should be accomplished without fail. The evil of the holding by monastic orders of title to boundless tracts including whole provinces of the most valuable lands in Luzon, endan- gers the future of the island. The soil cannot remain indefinitely the property of alien landlords, whether ecclesiastical or lay. Luzon is not to become another Ireland, with the evil conditions of that unhappy island magnified a hundredfold. The people who mhabit the land, who cultivate it and develop it, must have an interest m it. It is said that the orders have not valid record title to much of the confiscated land of which tliev have taken possession by virtue of their relations with the Spanish Government. As has been suggested, some sort of a tribunal should \amine into the whole question of these titles. If no other effective aethod is discovered, these extensive alien landholdings may be broken S bv the imposition of a very heavy ground tax. Land is almost ne- 'iected as a sourc^ of revenue under the Spanish tax system which we a9e enforcing. " 1 8 Oriental America and its Problems Our Philippines experiment would seem to be threatened in advance with complete failure if we undertake to keep the peace and to bring prosperity and happiness to an island in which the hated friars own the land and the discontented insurrectos live upon it. Under this arrange- ment Spain would retain through the monastic orders the ownership of the Philippines, and would have ceded to us merely the duty of protect- ing her in that ownership, and of governing and subduing with our army in her interest the landless, desperate and constantly revolting Filipinos, whom she was unable by her own efforts to overcome. A CHOICE OP POLICIES. Two paths of policy open before us. We can accept the Philippines as a trust imposed by Providence to be administered for the benefit of the millions of people who inhabit the islands. In this case we shall side with the Filipino against the Spaniard, with the Filipino against the friar, with the Filipino against the Chinaman, and in each of these con- troversies we shall make the cause and interest of the Filipino people our own. On the other hand we may accept these islands as the spoils of war, unaccompanied by any obligations whatsoever to the people who happen to live upon them. In which case we may enter upon the broad and apparently smooth way of the policy which merely substitutes our mastery for that of the Spaniards, indorses and adopts the Spanish sys- tem of government, taxation and general treatment of the natives, recog- nizes the friars as the owners of the land and the masters of the people, and utilizes the reliable Chinaman as the universal workingman of the islands. Under this policy we should reserve despotic government of the Philippines to ourselves, turn over the land to the friars and the labor to the Chinese, and consign the Filipinos to the tender mercies of a large American standing army, expensively transported for many thousand miles to the scene of a distasteful and un-American task. The Philippines labor problem is many sided and is not to be dis- posed of hastily. The only necessary decision of the present is the pre- liminary one that opportunities in the labor field shall be secured for the Filipinos. Some men, whose opinions are entitled to respect, say that the Filipinos will not work ; that they will not utilize the chances to do so when afforded them. This sweeping condemnation has yet to be demonstrated to be well founded. The Filipinos" might be expected to work with suitable encouragement as well as the Javanese, with whom they have racial affinities. If, however, having had full opportunity, they fail to seize it, and the development of the islands in any direction suffers from lack of labor, there will still be time to supplement the thousands of Chinese and mestizos already here and for Uncle Sam to enter into a partnership of capital and labor with John Chinaman, such as John Bull has formed with him in Singapore. This is not a case, however, where, as in the formative days of the Straits Settlements, from paucity of a fixed Malay population the best workers from the outside can be selected deliberately, untroubled by interfering equities. Luzon is so thickly populated that in order to avoid the possible famines of the future and the outbreaks which spring from the desperation of the half starved, every effort should be made to bring the natives into productive contact with the soil or into other self-supporting forms of labor, even to the ex- tent of the judicious pushing suggested by General MacArthur. Mean- while the numerous Chinese already in Luzon, entitled to be classed among the Filipinos, if they desire it, can, during the experimental Luzon in 1900 19 period, and even afterwards, perform any kind of labor in which it may appear that the Malay Filipinos absolutely will not engage. There are many minor needs of the Filipinos — as for the gradual de- velopment of self-government, beginning with control of the municipali- lies ; in the matter of schools, railroads and improved highways ; in relief from old Spanish laws and taxes, and in greater consideration and cour- tesy on the part of our soldiers and of Americans generally. But until a settlement is reached of the vital questions — as whether they are to be subjected again to the domination of the friars, whether they can read- ily acquire an individual interest in the soil on which they live, and whether the means of existence represented by the labor of the islands shall be tentatively reserved for them — discussion of the other matters seems premature and futile. Chapter IV LUZON IN 1902 The Changes of Two Years— Many in the j^ctors, Few in the Play— American Pa' tience Still Needed— Amnesty for Genuine Amigos; Annihilation for the Bandits^ Following Lines of Policy Suggested in 1900— The Need of English and Industrial Education— Title of Monastic Orders to Lands to Be Judicially Tested and Valid. Holdings Purchased by Government— No Domination by the Friars and No Ab- sentee Ecclesiastical Landlordism. The period of over two years that has elapsed since my New Year interview with General Otis, while chronicling a highly creditable record of American administration and achievement, both civil and military, has- worked few changes in the essentials of the American problem in the Philippines. The considerations which were forcible and the sugges- tions which were pertinent in 1900 have lost neither point nor weight, and are directly applicable to the conditions of 1902. The actors on the Philippines stage have changed, but not the play. ■Notable progress has been made in answering the questions and meeting the issues of 1900, and important legislation indicating national tendencies has been secured, but no final settlement has yet been reached on any vital point, and no new problems displace and render obsolete the old. General iVlacArthur, whom I visited in camp at Bautista, has suc- ceeded General Otis as military governor of the Philippines, has occu- pied the official palace in old Manila, and after an administration highly creditable to him and promotive of the national and Filipino welfare, has in turn given way to General Chafifee, fresh from his exploits on Chinese soil. The multifarious and overwhelming duties of General Otis as mili- tary governor have been divided, and the civil administration, separated from the military, has been assigned to Judge Taft as civil governor,, who in that capacity has already made a notable record for energy, tact- fulness and intelligent efficiency. Finally, by order of July 4, 1902, civil administration has been extended to the whole archipelago, except the Mahometan Islands. AGUINALDO, BUBNCAMINO, PATERNO AND MABINI. With this shifting in persons and official duties there has been steady progress under capable American guidance in overcoming the difficul- ties and discouragements which have been noted. The Tagalog insur- gent force collected in January, 1900, in south Luzon, has been com- pletely dispersed, and no other concentration in the smallest degree ap- proaching it in strength has since been effected or attempted. Practically all of the insurrecto leaders have been captured or have surrendered. Aguinaldo, who had then disappeared after his flight from Tarlac, was made, through Funston's daring feat, a nominal prisoner in Manila, who- has taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, desires to visit America, and fears as a result of liberty for himself, under the amnesty proclamation of July 4, 1902, personal violence from the adherents of General Luna, who was assassinated in front of Aguinaldo's tent, and, it is asserted, by his orders. Of the other prominent Filipinos discussed' by General Otis for my information, Buencamino, a former premier in. Luzon in 1902 21 Aguinaldo's government, and Paterno, the president of Aguinaldo's revo- lutionary congress, are now strong friends of the United States, con- spicuous in the councils of the federal party, the pro-American peace •organization of the Filipinos, which has contributed materially to pacifi- cation. Buencamino early in 1902 was active in the Protestant mission- ary campaign in Luzon. He has recently visited America as representa- tive of the federal party, and has voiced its sentiments to the President, lo Congress and to the public. Paterno has been instrumental in having school commemoration and general public celebration of the birthday of the martyred Rizal. He publishes in his political interest a newspaper in Spanish, called La Fraternidad. In the course of the kaleidoscopic shift- ing of the political activities of these Filipinos they now appear as de- voted Americanistas. In contrast with their pliability and easy adapta- "bility is the uncompromising attitude of Mabini, who, with the bandit Pilar and others, was deported to Guam. General MacArthur cabled concerning Mabini at the time of his de- portation : A most active agitator; persistently and defiantly refusing amnesty and main- taining correspondence with insurgents in the field, while living in Manila under pro- tection of the United States. His deportation absolutely essential. Major Orwig, in charge of the Guam prisoners, says in his April {1901) report that these Filipinos "express themselves generally as being anxious to return to the Philippines and willing to submit to American rule. Mabini has, however, made no such declaration ; and, while he is entirely submissive to the prison rules, there still seems to be an under- current of resistance and a determination to be a martyr." Mabini had the best brains and, apparently, all the sincerity and back- Tjone of the Filipino insurrectionists. He is the only one who has shown the slightest appreciation of the meaning of independence in the Ameri- can sense of the word, the smallest genuine desire to enjoy it, and the least willingness to make sacrifices in the unfaltering hope of obtaining it. If anti-imperialism requires a FiHpino Washington of heroic mould, let Mabini be chosen, and not that pitiful creature Aguinaldo.* CONDITIOXS IMPROVED BUT NOT CURED. In spite of temporary setbacks the sphere of civil administration has been steadily and safely enlarging, until it now covers all except the Mahometan islands and provinces, and the Tagalog revolt has assumed more and more each month the aspect of mere brigandage. But while the Tagalogs in arms are much fewer and the friendly Filipinos far more numerous, and while the end of the war has been officially proclaimed by the President and the American army in the Philippines has been safely reduced to a fraction of its former strength, there are still many, armed or unarmed, who are unreconciled and unreconstructed. Many times in 1902 there has been witnessed the same rapid transformation from armed and uniformed hostile to white-clad amigo, and back again to military at- tire. There is still the same intimidation of non-combatant Filipinos by insurrectos in arms, and the threats, sometimes fulfilled, against those •The Filipinos deported to Guam, with a few exceptions, took immediate advan- tage of the amnesty proclamation of July 4, 1902, and, taking the required oath of allegiance, were sent back to Manila. For months Mabini persistently refused to swear allegiance to the United States and remained in Guam, while his case was made the text of anti-imperialistic agitation and discussion in the newspapers, in pamphlets and in the Senate. Finally Mabini yielded and took the oath of allegiance February 27, 1903. 22 Oriental America and its Problems natives who affiliate with Americans. There is still the same condition of petty guerrilla war, marked by treachery on the part of those upoa whose protestations the Americans have relied. Even municipal officials in the government set up by our army officers have played us false, in some instances representing both the insurgent and the American au- thorities, and collecting taxes in both capacities. At Taytay in Morong province, Luzon, a native priest, the curate of the pueblo, who was the most influential man in that province with the Americans, and most trusted by them, caused an insurgent officer to be elected as presidente in the civil government set up by the Americans^ and other members of a little band of soldiers from a dispersed Filipino army filled the other municipal positions. These men served with due appearance of loyalty the American government, while at the same time they labored secretly in the interest of the insurrection. Finally, the conspiring municipal officials entered upon a series of murders, and in- vestigation into the numerous mysterious disappearances led to the dis- covery of the plot. Three of the officials were hanged, three imprisoned for life, and the priest was punished by a sentence of twenty years at hard labor. In the massacre at Balangiga, in Samar, the chief of police and the presidente hatched the conspiracy and the church bells sounded the sig- nal of slaughter. So numerous were these discoveries of treachery that General Chaf- fee, in reviewing certain court-martial sentences imposed upon guilty Filipinos, in his indignation too sweepingly denounced the people of the islands, saying : "History affords no parallel of a whole people thus prac- tically turning war traitors, and in the genius of no other people were ever found such masterful powers of secrecy and dissimulation." In view of this continuance in 1902 in certain essentials of the condi- tions of 1900 there is evidently the same need today as then of patience on the part of the American people with an apparently slow progress in the complete pacification of the islands, if it is held that such condition is not reached until the murderous robber bands have all been dispersed or exterminated. There is the same need of extreme consideration and full protection for the Filipinos who are now co-operating in increasing num- bers with the Americans, and of vigorous and effective pursuit and swift punishment of the bandits who, still lurking in forests or mountain recesses, slaughter prisoners, wreck trains, rob and murder, preying in- discriminately on Americans and Filipinos, but preferring the latter as easier game. AMNESTY FOR AMIGOS; ANNIHILATION FOR BAKDITS. Progress has been made along both branches of this dual policy, which was presented as applicable to the conditions of 1900. The declara- tion of the end of war with the Filipinos as a people and the proclama- tion of amnesty, recommended by subordinate officers, were at first op- posed by the military governor, but after some delay were announced. They were followed, as urged in 1900, by the most considerate legisla- tion and executive action by the American authorities in the archipelago, guaranteeing prompt fulfillment in specific shape of the American prom- ises of good government and redress of the old grievances against Spain, thus eliminating all reasonable causes of war and tending to make the proclaimed peace genuine and permanent. And now the proclama- tion of peace and the declaration of amnesty have been made formally (July 4, 1902) by the President of the United States himself. Luzon in 1902 23 The associated proposition of drastic treatment for the brigands in- festing the woods and the plotting and murderously treacherous irrecon- cilables who lurked in the towns was not fully tested until General Mac- Arthur, as military governor, after the American elections in November, 1900, formally proclaimed that the severest punishments would be in- flicted upon captured Tagalogs who had offended the laws of war. This warning was intended for any who might think of imitating such savages as those who on Mount Aryat barbarously slaughtered their prisoners on the approach of American soldiers. Deportation to Guam was wisely provided for dangerous and obstinate plotters like Mabini. It was again demonstrated that nothing is so conciliating as a little severity. General MacArthur attributes to this proclamation of December 20, 1900, the first genuine pacification of the islands. "From the date of its issue," he says, "secret resistance and apathy began to diminish and kidnapping and assassination were much abated. In a very short time these malign influences were to a great extent superseded in American afifairs. Rarely in war has a single document been so instrumental in influencing ulti- mate results. The consequences in this instance, however, which lie very near the surface, seem to preclude all possibiHty of doubt, and also seem to justify the conclusion that the effective pacification of the archipelago commenced December 20, 1900." Today these diverse but consistent and co-operating policies are in full operation with the best of results. Conciliation, sympathy, redress of grievances, progressive self-government — these are the watchwords of Taft and the civil administration in deaHng with the peaceful law- abiding Filipinos. Compulsion, severity, the stern punishment of mur- derous treachery — these are the watchwords of Chaffee and the army. For the genuine amigo is the protecting and uplifting hand ; for the ir- reconcilable and treacherous is the blow of the mailed fist. CRUELTIES IN FILIPINO WARFARE. There has been in 1902 much discussion of the character of the con- duct by the American soldiers of hostilities against the Filipinos. There is no doubt that these operations at one time lacked the punishing vigor which was requisite. War was made too easy for the hostiles. There was not sufiScient discrimination between the treatment of those who fired upon us and those who were disposed to be friendly to us. Indeed, we coddled the openly hostile and failed to protect against torture and assassination our friends. All the influences tended to make the discreet Filipino an insurrecto. When this policy was changed and Americans began to make war in earnest on the banditti posing as insurrecto patriots, there were doubt- less instances of harsh treatment of Filipinos, which went to the other extreme. A few cases of punishment of American soldiers for mflictmg torture to extort information or confessions are recorded, and the inference is that there were other instances which went unpunished. Indeed, in the congressional partisan ransacking of soldiers' stories about occurrences in the PhiHppines there have been discovered among a mass of veno- mous fabrications by spiteful malcontents a number of genuine torture cases which failed to reach court-martial in the Philippines. There have also been more serious allegations of offenses agamst the laws of war by American officers in the Samar campaign of retalia- tion for the massacre of Balangiga. 24 Oriental America and its Problems All such charges, whether great or small, should be tried before the proper military tribunals in due course in the Philippines, where the wit- nesses and the evidence furnished by conditions of environment are at hand, and the accused, if found guilty, should be duly punished. But it is impossible on the evidence furnished by these scattered and excep- tional cases to sustain an indictment against the American army of in- human or even very cruel conduct of the war in the Philippines. This fact is now apparently conceded even by those who seemed at first for partisan reasons to be contending for the opposite conclusion. Sub- jected to the test of sound public policy every severity within the laws of war is to be pronounced commendable if directed against the so-called insurgents in arms, the robbers and assassins of their helpless fellow- countrymen ; and no severity is defensible when it is applied to Filipino non-combatants. The political hereafter of a "pax-Americana" in the Philippines must be kept in mind in all the acts of today, and their effect in allaying or intensifying bitterness of feeHng between Filipinos and Americans after peace is thoroiighly established must be carefully con- sidered. In reviewing a trial before a military commission of certain Filipinos, so-called insurrectos, who buried alive or burned at the stake some of their countrymen, General Chaffee places relentless severity to- ward the insurrecto "banded assassins squarely on the basis of wise preparations for harmony and security during the coming peace. He says : Patriotism long since ceased to be the guiding motive of these bands. The num- ber of men and women who have been destroyed by their own countrymen, under guise of making war upon tlie American forces, now reaches high into tlie thousands, and the worlc of these cowardly assassins, now misnamed insurrectos, still goes on in a few districts, where they profess to be making war against the ITnited States; but where, in fact, they engage only in terrorizing the people into surrender of enough property to enrich the leaders and support their ignorant and vicious followers. The laws of war, having in view the ultimate return of peace, with complete protection for the lives and property of the people, denounce upon all such banditti the penalty of death. No matter under what name or society they may seek to disguise their true character as banded assassins, the work of their extermination must go on until chief and follower shall cease their inhuman trade. As the probabilities of bitterness and friction between Americans and Filipinos after hostilities cease will be diminished by judicious harshness of treatment of robbers and murderers, so the same end will be pro- moted by the utmost consideration in dealing with the Filipinos who are disposed to be friendly. To sow among this class a crop of anti-Ameri- can prejudices, resentments and hatreds is the very essence of unwisdom. Amnesty, marking the end of the Filipino war, which was expected in 1900, and has been vainly proclaimed by the insular military government, has now been declared by the President of the United States, and a re- newed national obligation presses upon the republic "to correct, as far as possible, the evils of Spanish misrule and to satisfy the reasonable as- pirations of the Filipinos for better and freer government." President Roosevelt, in announcing the end of the Filipino insurrec- tion, takes advantage of the occasion to pay a deserved tribute to the American army, which is especially appreciated and applauded by the American people on account of the attacks to which the republic's sol- diers have been subjected. Secretary Root, speaking for the President, says in his order of July 4, 1902 : The President thanks the officers and enlisted men of the army in the Philippines, both regulars and volunteers, for the courage and fortitude, the indomitable spirit and loyal devotion with which they have put down and ended the great insurrection which has raged throughout the archipelago against the lawful sovereignty and just authority of the United States. The task was peculiarly difficult and trying. They Luzon in 1902 25 were required at first to overcome organized resistance of superior numbers, well equipped with modern arms of precision, intrenched in an unknown country of moun- tain defiles, jungles and swamps, apparently capable of Interminable defense. When this resistance had been overcome they were required to crush out a general svstem of guerrilla warfare conducted among a people speaking unknown tongues, from whom It was almost impossible to obtain the information necessary for successful pursuit or to guard against surprise and ambush. The enemies by whom they were surrounded were regardless of all obligations of good faith and of all the limitations which humanity has imposed upon civilized war- fare. Bound themselves by the laws of war, our soldiers were called upon to meet every device of unscrupulous treachery and to contemplate without reprisal the inflic- tion of barbarous cruelties upon their comrades and friendly natives. They were in- structed, while punishing armed resistance, to conciliate the friendship of the peace- ful, yet had to do with a population among whom it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. and who in countless instances used a false appearance of friend- ship for ambush and assassination. They were obliged to deal with problems o£ com- munication and transportation in a country without roads and frequently made im- passable by torrential rains. They were weakened by tropical heat and tropical dis- ease. Widely scattered over a great archipelago, extending a thousand miles from north to south, the gravest responsibilities, involving the life or death of their com- mands, frequently devolved upon young and inexperienced officers beyond the reach of specific orders or advice. Under all these adverse circumstances the army of the Philippines has accom- plished its task rapidly and completely. In more than two thousand combats, great 'ijid small, within three years, it has exhibited unvarying courage and resolution. Utilizing the lesson of the Indian wars it has relentlessly followed the guerrilla bands to their fastnesses in mountain and jungle and crushed them. It has put an end to the vast system of intimidation and secret assassination by which the peaceful natives were prevented from taking a genuine part in government under American authority. It has captured or forced to surrender substantially all the leaders of the insurrec- tion. It has submitted to no discouragement and halted at no obstacle. Its officers have shown high qualities of command, and its men have shown devotion and dis- cipline. Its splendid virile energy has been accompanied by self-control, patience and magnanimity. With surprisingly few individual exceptions its course has been char- acterized by humanity and kindness to the prisoner and the non-combatant. With admirable good temper, sympathy and loyalty to American ideals its commanding generals have joined with the civilian agents of the government in healing the wounds of war and assuring to the people of the Philippines the blessings of peace and prosperity. Individual liberty, protection of personal rights, civil order, public in- struction and religious freedom have followed its footsteps. It has added honor to the flag which it defended, and has justified increased confidence in the future of the American people, whose soldiers do not shrink from labor or death, yet love liberty and peace.* NOTABLE PROGRESS IN PDBLIO EDUCATION. Great advances have been made in satisfying the educational desires of the Filipinos as voiced by the presidente of Calasiao. The schools, teaching English, and even the trade school, for which he pleaded as the greatest need of his people, have been supplied. The employment of a thousand American teachers has been authorized, and nearly all of this number are now in the archipelago at work, their primary function being to teach English and modern methods of instruction to Filipino teachers. It is estimated that there are over 150,000 Filipino pupils en- rolled in the free primary schools established by the government, and over 75,000 pupils in actual daily attendance. f This discrepancy in figures of enrollment and attendance is due in part to the fact that it is impossi- ble to furnish accommodations for assembling all the pupils who wish to attend school. There are between 3,000 and 4,000 elementary Filipino teachers engaged in public education, about 2,000 of whom are daily re- ceiving at least one hour of English instruction. Between 20,000 and 30,000 adults are learning English in evening schools conducted by American teachers. Demands for the establishment of schools for the instruction of adults in English are coming from all parts of the archi- pelago. In the Manila primary schools there were at the end of July, •In the same vein see President Roosevelt's vigorous and effective defence of the army in his address of April 7, 190.3, at Fargo, N. D. tThe superintendent of public instruction reports that in 1903 there are about 200,- 000 children under instruction at an annua! expenditure of about $800,000 and that the system is becoming both popular and effective. 26 Oriental America and its Problems 1901, 5,123 pupils in attendance. The attendance in the Manila night schools for September, 1901, was 1,800. One hundred and thirty-four Filipino teachers are now employed in Manila. A normal school has been established in the Walled City, and in the spring of 1901 instruction was given to 570 Filipino teachers assembled from schools in various parts of the archipelago. The sum of $15,000 was appropriated for the organization and maintenance for 1901 of a school in Manila for the in- struction of Filipinos in useful trades. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS FOR THE FILIPINOS. The statement of the presidente of Calasiao that the special need of the Filipinos is for industrial schools is confirmed by the experience of the commission. "From various parts of the archipelago," it reports, "requests were made for the establishment of schools. These requests are for assistance in constructing school buildings, for teachers to give instruction in EngHsh, and for teachers to give instruction in manual training and the trades. It is significant that next to the demand for instruction in English there comes the demand for a kind of instruction to which in these islands little attention has hitherto been given, and it is thought to be highly desirable to satisfy their demands as far as possible. * * * The backwardness of these islands in almost all forms of in- dustry and agriculture is due, not to lack of resources or physical condi- tions unfavorable to development in these lines, but in a large measure to the fact that little or no effort has been made to furnish the people proper tools, implements and machinery or an effective knowledge of how to use them. Trade schools will therefore support the Filipinos at their weakest point, and if estabhshed in sufficient numbers and properly organized and conducted will do more than almost any other agency to put them in the possession of those qualities or powers which tend most directly to modernizing them and raising their standard of civilization." All public instruction in Manila at the present time is in the English language, though Spanish still holds a place in private institutions. "The popular discussion of the subject of education, the qualifications for entrance to the public service set by the civil service board, and the widespread belief in the opening of a new epoch in these islands in which knowledge and scholarly attainments will be recognized as opening ave- nues to successful careers, seem to promise an awakening among the Filipino people. The demand for instruction is unprecedented." The civil insular administration has made a notable record of achieve- ment not only in the field of educational development, but in other branches of its labors. The Filipinos, in addition to large representation in the municipal governments, participate in the central insular admin- istration, three of the eight members of the commission being natives. The commission has established a purified insular judiciary in which the Filipinos participate to the extent of safety. Three of the seven members of the supreme court are natives. The commission has framed a code of civil procedure and a code of practice and crimes. It has established a system of local police and insular constabulary for the suppression of ladronism. It has created an effective health department to attack and prevent epidemics. Through its recommendations the wise and compre- hensive legislation of the first session of the Fifty-seventh Congress has been secured. While this progress has been made and advances may be noted in meeting the other material needs of the Filipinos specified by the presi- lyUzon in 1902 27 dente of Calasiao, as for example in road building,* upon which the sura of a tnilHon dollars has already been expended, and in protection of na- tive hfe and property, the problems of land and labor, which pushed themselves to the front in 1900 as of overwhelming importance, are still m certain vital respects unsettled, and are likewise, with the question of FiHpino participation in or control of the insular government, the archi- pelago's paramount issues of 1902. The labor question, involving as the vital issue the exclusion or ad- mission of the Chinese, is thoroughly discussed and brought to date in chapters VIII and IX of this volume, in connection with a study of the lesson taught us on this point by the Javanese, the industrious :\Ialay workers who have highly developed a beautiful tropical island. THE DOMINATING FRIARS AND THEIR VAST LAND HOLDINGS. Aly suggestions of January, 1900, in respect to the friars and ecclesi- astical lands were : (i) Do not permit the Spanish friars to return to the Philippines. Accomplish this result through arrangement with the Roman Catholic Church if possible. But in any event exclude the friars from the parishes which object to them. (2) Establish a tribunal to ex- amine land titles, which may determine the validity or invahdity of dis- puted ecclesiastical holdings, and pass upon the question of the status of Spanish public property, nominal title to which is in the monastic or- ders. (3) Cure the evil of alien landlordism by breaking up the great monastic holdings ; if possible in no other way by imposing a very heavy ground tax. (i) In regard to the exclusion of the friars, or rather to the question of forcing back upon the Filipinos the friars whom they have themselves excluded, no definite understanding with the Roman Catholic Church 'has yet been announced. Governor Taft, in negotiating early in 1902 with the Vatican concerning the purchase of the ecclesiastical lands, made the withdrawal of the friars virtually a condition of the purchase of their property, but no settlement was reached at Rome and the negotia- tions are still in progress at Manila. PREVE^•T RETURN OF THE SPANISH FRIARS. The contention that the return of the Spanish friars to their parishes should be prevented is strongly sustained by the comments on this sub- ject of the Taft commission, based on a thorough investigation and *Of the three millions appropriated at the second session of the Fifty-seventh Con- gress for relief of the Filipinos (suffering from the loss of 90 per cent of their carabaos by rinderpest, the partial failure of the rice crop, the plague of locusts, the scourge of cholera and the evil of a fluctuating silver currency) a portion, at the discretion of the commission, is available for road-building. This item of appropriation in the sundry civil act approved March 3, 1903, reads as follows: "For the relief of the distress in the Philippine Islands, to be expended under the direction and in the discretion of the Philippine government in such proportions as they deem wise, in the direct purchase and distribution, or sale of farm implements, farm animals, sup- plies and the necessaries of life, and through the employment of labor in the con- struction of government wagon roads and other public works, to be immediately available, three million dollars. And the governor of the Philippines shall submit to the Secretary of War a statement of all expenditures hereunder." Secretary Root suggested for the benefit of the Filipinos a reduction of the duties levied in the United States upon Philippine products to 25 per cent of the Dingley tariff rates, and the establishment of the gold standard for the insular currency. Congress finally failed to act upon the tariff suggestion, but passed the currency act (see appendix), and appropriated as above set forth for Filipino relief. For other public improvement acts of Philippine commission see schedule of foot notes in table of contents. See also the Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands, issued by the bureau of insular affairs, an ofi3ce, which under the efficient management of Col. Clarence R. Edwards, is performing a useful and important function. 28 Oriental America and its Problems formally presented in its report of November 30, 1900. The commission says: By the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 against Spain, all the Dominicans, Augus- tlnians, RecoUetos and Franciscans acting as parish priests were driven trom tneir parishes to take refuge in Manila. Forty were killed and 403 were imprisoned and were not all released until by the advance of the American troops it became .impos- sible for the insurgents to retain them. Of the 1,124 who were in the islands in 189b but 472 remain. The remainder were either killed or died, returned to Spam, or went to China or South America. • » • The burning political question, discussion or which strongly agitates the people of the Philippines, is whether the members or the four great orders of St. Dominic, St. Augustine and St. Francis and the RecoUetos shall return to the parishes from which they were driven by the revolution, col- loquially the term "friars" includes only the members of the four orders. • i ne truth is that the whole government of Spain in these islands rested on the triars. lo use the expression of the provincial of the Augustinians, the friars were the pedestal or foundation of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands," which being removed, the whole structure would topple over." The number of Spanish troops in these islands aid not exceed 5,000 until the revolution. The tenure of office of the friar curate was per- manent. There was but little rotation of priests among the parishes. Once settled m a parish, a priest usually continued there until superannuation. He was, therefore, a constant political factor for a generation. The same was true of the archbishop and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain in the islands were here for not longer than four years, and more often for a less period. The friars, priests and bishops, therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well-organized political force in the islands, which dominated policies. The stay of those officers who at- tempted to pursue a course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was in- variably shortened by monastic influence. * * • It has been frequently charged that there was much immorality among the friars, and that^to this is due the popular hostility against them. The friar witnesses denied the charges of general Immorality, admitting only isolated cases, which they said were promptly disciplined. The evi- dence on this point to the contrary, however, is so strong that it seems clearly to establish that there were enough instances in each province to give considerable ground for the general report. • • • But while the charges have considerable truth in them, another fact clearly appeared which makes such immorality as there was largely irrelevant to the issue we are considering. This was that the immorality was not the chief ground for hostility to the friars. The common people are not gen- erally licentious or unchaste, but the living together of a man and woman without the marriage ceremony is not infrequent and is not condemned. It did not shock the common people or arouse their indignation to see their curate establish illicit rela- tions with a woman and have children by her. * * • We must look elsewhere, therefore, for the chief ground of the deep feeling cherished against the friars by the Filipino people. It is to be found in the fact that to the Filipino the government in these islands under Spain was the government of the friars. Every abuse of the many which finally led to the two revolutions of 1896 and 1898 was charged by the people to the friars. Whether they were in fact to blame is perhaps aside from our purpose, but it cannot admit of contradiction that the autocratic power which each friar curate exercised over the people and civil officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression, of narrowing restraint of liberty was imposed on them for which the friar was not entirely responsible. His sacerdotal functions were not in their eyes the important ones, except as they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his civil and po- litical control. The revolutions against Spain's sovereignty began as movements against the friars. Such was the tenor of Rizal's chief work. "Noli me tangere." The treaty of Biacnabato. which ended the first revolution, is said to have contained the condition that the friars should be expelled. In the second revolution, as already said, at least forty friars were killed, and over 400 were imprisoned. Having in view these circumstances, the statement of the bishops and friars that the mass of the people in these islands, except only a few of the leading men of each town, and the native clergy, are friendly to them, cannot be accepted as accurate. WELL-NIGH OKIVERSAL HATRED FOR THE FRIARS. All the evidence derived from every source, but the friars themselves, shows clearly that the feeling of hatred for the friars is well-nigh universal and permeates all classes. * * • In the light of these considerations it is not wonderful that the people should regard the return of the friars to their parishes as a return to the con- dition before the revolution. The common people are utterly unable to appreciate that under the sovereignty of the United States the position of the friar as curate would be different from that under Spain. This is not a religious question, though it concerns the selection of religious ministers for religious communities. The Philippine people love the Catholic Church. The solemnity and grandeur of its ceremonies ap- peal most strongly to their religious motives, and it may be doubted whether there is any country in the world in which the people have a more profound attachment for their church than this one. The depth of their feeling against the friars may be measured by the fact that it exists among those who, until two years ago, administered the sacraments of the church upon which they feel so great dependence and for which they have so profound a respect. The feeling against the friars is solely political. The people would gladly receive as ministers of the Roman Catholic religion any but those who are to them the embodiment of all in the Spanish rule that was hateful. If the friars return to their parishes, though only under the same police protection which the American govern- Luzon in 1902 29 raent is bound to extend to any other Spanish subjects commorant in these islands, the people will regard it as the act of that government. They have so long- been used to have every phase of their conduct regulated by governmental order that the coming again of the friars will be accepted as an executive order to them to receive the friars as curates, with their old, all-absorbing functions. It is Ukely to have the same effect on them that the return of General Weyler under an American commission as gov- ernor of Cuba would have had on the people of that island. Those who are charged with the duty of pacifying these islands may, therefore, properly have the liveliest concern in a matter which, though on its surface only ec- clesiastical, is, in the most important phase of it, political and fraught with the most critical consequences to the peace and good order of the country in which it is their duty to set up civil government. FRIARS' RETURN WILL LEAD TO MDRD.ER. We are convinced that a return of the friars to their parishes will lead to lawless violence and murder, and that the people will charge the course taken to the American government, thus turning against it the resentment felt toward the friars. It is to be re- membered that the Filipinos who are in sympathy with the American cause in these Islands are as bitterly opposed to the friars as the most irreconcilable insurgents, and they look with the greatest anxiety to the course to be taken in the matter. It is suggested that the friars, if they returned, would uphold American sovereignty and be efficient instruments in securing peace and good order, whereas the native priests who now fill the parishes are many of them active insurgent agents, or in strong sympathy with the cause. It is probably true that a considerable number of the Filipino priests are hostile to American sovereignty largely because they fear that the Catholic Church will deem it necessary, on the restoration of complete peace, to bring back the friars or to elevate the moral tone of the priesthood by introducing priests from America or elsewhere. But it is certain that the enmity among the peo- ple against the American government caused by the return of the friars would far outweigh the advantage of efforts to secure and preserve the allegiance of the peo- ple to American sovereignty which might be made by priests who are still subjects of a monarchy with which the American government has been lately at war, and who have not the slightest sympathy with the political principles of civil liberty, which the American government represents We have set forth the facts upon this important issue, because we do not think they ought to be, or can be ignored. We earnestly hope that those who control the policy of the Catholic Church in these islands, with the same sagacity and pre- vision which characterizes all its important policies, will see that it would be most unfortunate for the Philippine Islands, for the Catholic Church and for the Ameri- can government to attempt to send back the friars, and that some other solution of the difficulties should be found. The question for the prelate and statesman is not whether the bitter feeling toward the friars is justified or not, but whether it exists. It does not seem to us, therefore, to aid in reaching a conclusion to point out that all the civilization found in the Philippines is due to the friars. Be it so. Ought they on this account return to their parishes in the face of a deep, popular feeling against them? A popular bias or prejudice, deep-seated in an ignorant people, is not to be disregarded because it cannot stand the test of reason or evidence. It must be reck- oned with. It would, of course, be of much assistance to the American cause if the Catholic Church were to send among the people American priests, with the love of their country that they have always shown, and with their clear understanding of civil liberty and conservative popular government; but it is said that such priests are not available for the work. This is a question of purely church policy with which we have nothing to do. It is enough to say that the political question will be elimi- nated if the friars are not sent back. INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS AT ROME. The United States government is now fully committed to the wise policy of eliminating the Spanish friars as a disturbing factor in the Phil- ippine problem, and its position is lucidly and forcibly stated by Secretary Root and Governor Taft in the course of the negotiations at Rome in the spring and summer of 1902. The correspondence in this case is of the highest interest, recording, as it does, the opposing arguments of men profoundly versed in law, logic and diplomacy and masters in debate. It may be profitable to follow the twistings of the struggle over the single point of the disposition of the friars. Secretary Root's instructions to Governor Taft pointed out that the religious orders now "find themselves the object of such hostility on the part of their tenantry against them as landlords and on the part of the people of the parishes against them as representatives of the former government that they are no longer capable of serving any useful pur- pose for the church. No rents can be collected from the populous corn- 30 Oriental America and its Problems munities occupying their lands, unless it be by the intervention of the civil gOA'ernment with armed force. "Speaking generally, for several years past the friars, formerly in- stalled over the parishes, have been unable to remain at their posts, and are collected in Manila with the vain hope of returning. They will not be voluntarily accepted again by the people, and cannot be restored to their positions except by forcible intervention on the part of the civil govern- ment, which the principles of our government forbid. "It is manifest that under these conditions it is for the interest of the church, as well as of the state, that the landed proprietorship of the re- ligious orders in the Philippine Islands should cease, and that if the church wishes, as of course it does wish, to continue its ministration among the people of the islands, and to conduct in its own behalf a sys- tem of instruction, with which we have no desire to interfere, it should seek other agents therefor." Secretary Root then sets forth the wish of the government to buy the large tracts of agricultural lands belonging to the religious orders, but adds significantly that the purchase money is not "to be used for the attempted restoration of the friars to the parishes from which they are now separated, with the consequent disturbance of law and order." In other words, the purchase of the lands is conditional upon the non-return of the friars. Governor Taft in his address to the Pope approaches this delicate subject in the following words : The transfer ot sovereignty from Spain to the United States had been preceded tiy two revolutions among the Philippine people against Spain. The popular hostility was chiefly manifested against the members of four religious orders who had, in ad- dition to their clerical duties as parish priests, been charged by the Spanish govern- ment with the performance of a burden of local political and police duties, and In the performance had been held responsible by the people for the oppression of which it was said that Spain was guilty. Three of these orders were owners of large tracts of valuable agricultural lands, and in each revolution the hostility toward the members of the religious orders was, in provinces where this land lay, agrarian as well as political. The justice or in- justice of this hostility is. as I conceive, aside from the issue. It exists and is the result of years of peace and war. It can not be ignored. The members of these orders have not yet returned to their parishes, which are being administered by the native clergy, and they have not yet resumed possession of their lands. An at- tempt by them to assume the rights of landlords or to become parish priests again will, it is confidently believed, seriously disturb the peace and order of the islands. On behalf of the Philippine government, it is proposed to buy the lands of the religious orders with the hope that the funds thus furnished may lead to their with- drawal from the islands, and, if necessary, a substitution therefor, as parish priests, of other priests whose presence would not be dangerous to public order. We now have in the Philippine Islands a Christian people of 6,000,000 souls, substantially all Roman Catholics, just awaiting the dawn of a new political and business life. What a burden upon them, what a burden upon their church, to which they are devoted, that deep-seated political, and agrarian hostilities growing out of the troubles of a previous regime should be permitted now to cast their shadow upon their religious and political welfare. Should such questions be left open to a con- tinued discussion with all the unfortunate heat liliely to be engendered? Is it not wise that in a straightforward business method a basis for a general settlement and compromise should be reached in an amicable conference between the representa- tives of the head of the Roman Catholic Church and agents or officials of the Phil- ippine and United Stated governments? THE V.iTIC.iN'S POLICY IN THE PHILIPPINES. Cardinal Rampolla in his reply to Governor Taft states the position of the Holy See in these words : Regarding the religious orders, of which mention is made in the instructions of the Secretary of War. the Holy See can not give its adhesion to all the views con- tained therein; nor does it consider opportune to enter into a discussion on that point. Placing itself entirely on the practical ground of the provisions required by the new situation, the Holy See admits first of all that the system obtaining under the Spanish domination and the mixing up of the religious in the civil administration Luzon in 1902 31 might have created- for them in a portion of the people a certain ill will. How to eliminate this antipathy the Holy See has already devised means, gradually by op- portune measures to recall the regulars to the life proper to their institute, to de- vote themselves exclusively to spiritual ministry, to abstain from any kind of in- terference in things appertaining to the civil authority, to consolidate mutual peace of life between the people and clergy of the islands, to uphold the principle of authority, to imbue the masses with morality and to make themselves the instru- ments of civilization and social order. It is also the intention of the Holy See to introduce in the Philippine Islands re- ligious of other nationalities; and, so far as possible, from the United States, and to intrust to them, when sufficiently instructed in the local dialects, the spiritual care of the faithful. As to the Spanish religious in particular belonging to the orders mentioned in the instructions, not even they should be denied to return to those par- ishes where the people is disposed to receive them without disturbance of public order; and, if in some parishes where it is evident that they are desired, or are fa- vorably regarded by the whole or the great majority of the people, obstacles and dif- ficulties should be interposed on the part of some disturber of peace, the Holy See trusts that the American authorities by the ordinary means of civil justice will know how to protect the rights of the religious themselves and the wish of the people. Finally, the Holy See will not neglect to promote at the same time the better ecclesiastical education and training of the native clergy in order to put them in the way. according to their fitness, of taking gradually the place of the religious orders in the discharge of the pastoral functions. It is to be noted that the church indicates that it will introduce in the Philippines priests of other nationalities than Spanish, and "so far as possible from the United States," and will intrust to them, "when suf- ficiently instructed in the local dialects," the spiritual care of the faith- ful. But the friars should not, it is suggested, be prevented from return- ing to parishes where they are desired by the people, and in such cases if, having returned, they are interfered with by any disturber of the peace, it is intimated that the American authorities should protect the rights of the friars and the wish of the people. THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS MUST GO. In the course of his next communication to Cardinal Rampolla — a long and elaborate discussion of the whole subject — Governor Taft brings the issue to a head by proposing a formal contract for the pur- chase of the friars' lands upon specified conditions. By the next condition it is to be agreed on behalf of the Pope that all the members of the four religious orders of Dominicans, Augustinians, Recoletos and Franciscans. now in the islands shall withdraw therefrom after two years from the date of the first payment upon the purchase price of the lands under this agreement. A suf- ficient number of them, it is provided, may remain to continue the schools, university and conventual churches now conducted by them until the close of such two years, when they shall withdraw. It is further provided that the remainder shall with- draw from the islands, one-half within nine months after the first payment of pur- chase money and one-half after eighteen months. An exception is made in favor of any member of these orders who has been able to avoid the hostility of the peo- ple and to carry on his duties as parish priest in his parish outside of Manila from August, 1898, to the date of this agreement. It is certain that such a priest is popular with the people, and it is not desired to separate him from them. This exception is not extended to friars who have acted as parish priests in the city of Manila, because no such inference of popularity can be drawn as to them from their immunity from molestation in a city always occupied by American forces. It is further In effect agreed that no Spanish members of these orders shall be sub- stituted for those withdrawn. The only purpose that the American government has In proposing this condition is to secure political peace and an absence of disturb- ance. The most careful consideration has been given to what is said in the communi- cation of the Holy See in respect to the religious orders in the Phihppines and the means proposed to be adopted by the Holy See for avoiding the antipathy which the regulars now encounter in the islands, but with the utmost deference, it seems to the Philippine government that the means are not adeguate to meet the emergency which alone justifies it in taking any interest in the matter. Nothing will calm the fears of the people and nothing produce contentment with church and government except the definite knowledge from such a contract as that here proposed that the Spanish friars of the four orders are to leave the islands at a definite time, and are not to return to the parishes or exercise from, Manila a controlling influence there over the parish priests. It is hoped that in view of these facts, which are recited not to re- flect 'on the friars, but only to show the de facto condition, the Holy See will deem it proper to assent to the proposed provisions on this subject. 32 Oriental America and its Problems THE ROMAN CHURCH CANNOT PROMSE TO WITHDRAW FRIARS. The issue thus squarely presented is in Cardinal RampoUa's reply directly met. The Holy See finds it impossible to admit that which is proposed in relation to the religious of Spanish nationality in the archi- pelago. It is very easy to prove that the Holy See can not accept the proposition of the Philippine government to recall from the archipelago in a fixed time all the religious of Spanish nationality-Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustmians, Kecoletos, and to prevent their return in the future. In effect such a measure not justified by a reason of force majeure would be contrary to the positive rights guaranteed by the treaty of Paris, and would put, consequently, the Holy See in conflict with bpain, who would have every reason to protest. Much more, such a measure would be in the eyes of the Filipinos and of the entire Catholic world, the explicit confirmation of all the accusations brought against the said religious by their enemies, aociisa- tions of which the falsity, or at least the evident exaggeration, can not be disputed. Finally, if the American government, respecting as it does individual rights does not dare interdict the Phillippine soil to the Spanish religious of the four orders above named how could the Pope do it, he the common father of all, the support and born defender of the religious? On the other hand, without having recourse to this violent and extremely odious measure, the means which the Holy See counts upon taking are sufficient to set aside any fear or any preoccupation. The num- ber of the Spanish religious remaining in the archipelago has much diminished, and as I had the honor to say to you, Mr. Governor-General, in my memorial of the ^Ist of June, the Holy See will try to introduce therein religious of other nationalities, and particularly, as much as possible, of the United States of America, and to confide to them the parochial ministry, hardly will they be sufficiently instructed m the lan- guage of the country. Besides, the representative of the Holy See will carefully see that all the religious of no matter what nationality, order or congregation con- secrate themselves exclusively to their spiritual work, without inserting themselves in any way in political questions, and in abstaining from any opposition to the es- tablished power. This result will be all the more easy to attain since the resources of the religious will remain under the control of the supreme authority, to be devoted also to the spiritual needs of the church in the archipelago, besides which the representative of the Holy See, in accord with the diocesan authorities, will not permit the return of the Spanish religious of the above-named orders in the parishes where their presence would provoke troubles or disorders; that if in such and such parishes, the totality or the great majority of the population desiring the return of the religious, certain disturbers should seek to create obstacles and difficulties, the Holy See again ex- presses its confidence that the American authorities will know how, by the ordinary means of justice, to protect the rights of the religious and the will of the popu- lation. WITHDRAWAL OP PRIAES ESSENTIAL. The Holy See, under pressure from the powerful religious orders, could not, or would not, promise definitely the non-return of the friars, and the American government, in the absence of this pledge, could not, or would not, agree to purchase the friars' lands. But it seems clear from the expressions used by Cardinal Rampolla that the Holy See is dis- posed, as far as it may be able, to bring about the very conditions which it does not feel that it should directly promise. Further negotiations are transferred from Rome to Manila by a communication from Secretary Root, submitted to the Holy See by Governor Taft as part of his final presentation of the American case. Secretary Root says : I am much gratified by the expression of intention on the part of the Holy See to take the measures which are indicated by Cardinal RampoUa's memoranda of the 22d of June and of the 10th of July to recall the religious in the Philippine Islands to the life proper to their institutes, and to an exclusive devotion to spiritual ministry, abstaining from any kind of interference with things appertaining to the civil au- thority, and to introduce as much as possible the religious of nationalities other than Spanish, and particularly the religious of American nationality, and to con- cede to them the parochial ministry as soon as they shall be sufficiently instructed in the languages of the country. These measures, so plainly indicated as wise by the recognized facts in the Philippine Archipelago, are quite independent of any busi- ness or monetary consideration, and I feel that such contribution as you have been able to make to a full understanding of the facts, and the development of the pur- poses described, is sufficient compensation for your visit to Rome. It is believed that there will result a sure basis of mutual consideration and just treatment in the future relations between the church and state in the Philippines in regard to all specific questions which will have to be settled there. Regarding the withdrawal of the members of the religious orders from the Phil- ippines, it should not be understood that the Philippine government is asking to Luzou in 1902 33 modify or in any manner affect the conduct of religious matters on the part of the Holy See, or on the part of the heads of the orders, or for any compulsory exclusion or proceeding whatever. It is rather that the Philippine government desires social lesults which it deems of great importance to the welfare of the Philippine people, and which can be accomplished only by the withdrawal of this class of persons who have fortuitously been thrown into special and antagonistic political relations with the people. That government has proposed an arrangement which it supposed to bo very advantageous to the church, and worth its own while to carry out, if the ecclesiastical authorities having the direction of the religious orders should see fit voluntarily to withdraw them from the islands. Such a voluntary withdrawal can not be considered a violation of any rights under the treaty of Paris or otherwise, or any reflection either upon the nation or upon the orders to which the persons with- drawing happen to belong. The reasons making the withdrawal desirable are not religious or racial, but arise from the political and social relations which existed under the former government, and which have created personal antipathies menacing to the peace and order of the community. Such a voluntary withdrawal would not involve any confirmation of any accusations against the persons withdrawing or the orders to which they belong; and it is to be observed that we have made no such accusations. It would simply recognize the existence of the conditions which for several years past have been and now are preventing these particular agents from serving the church in the stations to which they were assigned and which would make their re-employment injurious to the community. In this matter the United States representatives in the Philip- pines are merely endeavoring to meet the wishes, as well as the needs, of the Philip- pine people. It is not the United States government which objects to the presence of the friars; it is the Catholic population of the Philippine Islands. The lay Catholic population and the parish priests of native and non- Spanish blood, are practically a unit in de- siring both to expel the friars and to confiscate their lands out of hand. This pro- posed confiscation without compensation of the church lands was one of the funda- mental policies of the insurgent government under Aguinaldo. Recognizing the in- tensity and practical unanimity of this feeling among the Filipinos, and at the same time desiring to avoid causing loss to the church, the United States govern- ment representatives proposed to pay for the lands out of the public funds if the friars would retire from the islands and give place to other religious of their own faith who might be able to accomplish for their religion what they themselves had so signally failed to accomplish. In making this proposal the United States repre- sentatives were well aware that financially it was only of benefit to the church, for the lands are unproductive and held In adverse possession by the natives, who re- fuse to pay rent, while the former congregations of the objectionable friars now re- fuse to receive them, and they could only be henceforth restored to their parishes by such affirmative governmental action as under our Constitution can not be taken. While it is to be regretted that the authorities having control of the religious orders do not see their way to make a definite agreement for the withdrawal from Manila of the friars formerly in the parishes, yet it is hoped that pending the set- tlement of these various matters they will reach the conclusion that it is wise to do the same thing of their own motion and irrespective of any agreement to that effect. However that may be, you should assure the authorities of the church that we shall at all times do all in our power to continue the good understanding already reached and to agree upon such action as shall be for the benefit of all; and further assure them of our high appreciation of the courtesy and consideration with which the ex- aresslon of your views and wishes has been received. HAVE THE FBIAES TTTLE TO THEIR LAJvD HOLDINGS? (2) In the instructions given by the President to the Taft commission was the following direction : "It will be the duty of the commission to make a thorough investigation into the titles of the large tracts of land held or claimed by individuals or by religious orders ; into the justice of the claims and complaints made against such landholders by the people of the island or any part of the people, and to seek by wise and peace- able measures a just settlement of the controversies and redress of the wrongs which have caused strife and bloodshed in the past." In pursuance of this direction and as a test case the commission first investigated specifically the contested title to the lands and buildings of the College of San Jose at Manila, property worth about $500,000. On the one hand it was contended that this college and its property had been completely under the control and administration of the Spanish govern- ment as a public institution, and passed by virtue of the treaty of Paris to the United States, to be maintained by it on a non-sectarian basis for the benefit of the Filipino people. On the other hand it was claimed that the property under the canonical and civil law had always been subject 34 Oriental America and its Problems to the ultimate control of the Catholic Church for sectarian charitable purposes, a control exercised by the King of Spain only by virtue of a concordat between him and the Pope. The commission announced its conclusion that the claim, adverse to the alleged right of the religious control of the college, had sufficient basis to require its submission to judicial decision. Suit was authorized before the supreme court of the Philippines to determine the question of title, and the probability was suggested that the Congress now in session at Washington would confer (as it has now in fact conferred) upon the Supreme Court of the United States jurisdiction to consider appeals from the supreme court of the Philippines. "The present case, involving a construction of the treaty of Paris and the effect upon public trusts of a transfer of sovereignty from a kingdom in which church and state were united, and one might almost say inextricably fused, to one in which church and state are kept entirely separate, is of such importance as to make most appropriate the submission of .the issue to a court of the dignity, learning, ability and commanding jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States." This suit has been brought before the supreme court of the archipelago, but has not been pushed, being held in abeyance pending direct negotia- tions concerning ecclesiastical property between the Philippine govern- ment and the Vatican. The Philippine commission in its report covering the period between December i, 1900, and October 15, 1901, refers to the San Jose case, and says : "There are other controversies likely to be brought into the courts of the islands between the Catholic Church and the insular government in respect to the title to and the administration of trust or other property. The intimate association between the Span- ish government and the Catholic Church, and the difficulty of separating what is civil and what is church property, is so great and presents ques- tions of such delicacy from a political standpoint that we recommend that in all such cases an appeal be granted from the supreme court of the islands to the Supreme Court of the United States." [Such appeals are authorized by act of July i, 1902. See appendix.] A TRIBUNAL TO TEST THE FKIARS' TITLES. Thus a general tribunal is provided for the trial of public land title cases, and presumably recourse could be had to the same court by pri- vate individuals contesting the title to any lands claimed by the monastic orders. There is some difference of opinion concerning the extent to which this examination into titles will deprive the friars of their present hold- ings. The Taft Philippine commission in its report of November 30, 1900, says : With these exceptions (wild lands in northern Luzon and Mindanao) the lands held by the friars have been theirs for more than a generation, and they have owned most of the valuable estates for one or two centuries. In few instances, it is be- lieved, can their ownership be successfuUj' attacked in law, for prescription has sup- plied any defect which might have been in their original titles. This is the conces- sion of Don Felipe Calderon, one of the brightest of the Filipino lawyers, and most prominent in his opposition to the friars, though he suggests that the friars had such power to defeat claims against them under the Spanish regime as to furnish a just reason for suspending the operation of prescription. The suggestion is not, how- ever, believed to be a tenable one. Moreover no adverse claimants to agricultural lands held by the friars have appeared before the commission or the courts, except certain tenants of an estate lying near Calamba in the province of Laguna, and the issue made by them can be readily settled in the ordinary tribunals. Luzon in 1902 35 General MacArthur in his final report as military governor (July 4, 1901) attaches more weight to the claim of a suspension of prescription in these cases. He says : In respect of inquests into tlie titles to real property held by the orders, the useful and effective remedy would seem to be through the courts. It, in final aspect, the in- terests involved are found sufflciently comprehensive to justify such action, special ■courts might be created to try issues so presented. If property has been obtained from towns, corporations or individuals by means of intimidation, open violence or fiaud, as is frequently alleged, its long possession without challenge must be re- garded as a consequence of duress, as courts wherein such issues could be tried did not exist prior to American occupation. Whatever title might, under normal con- -ditions, have attached from prescription and occupation, could not now be effective 1:0 bar proceedings before American courts. Parties of interest, either municipalities, •corporations or individuals, having inherited claims against religious corporations, would thus have a forum wherein to initiate proceedings in their own behalf, with the certainty of obtaining therein the useful effect of absolute justice. An inquest initiated by the government for the purpose of examining all titles held by religious corporations with a view to voiding all found attainted by fraud would mean endless discord, political rancor and religious resentment that might extend to the United States, and in the end might possibly be found entirely ineffectual to accomplish the purpose intended. BREAK UP THE VAST ECCLESIASTICAL HOLDINGS. (3) On the whole it is Hkely that the friars can be deprived of little of their agricultural holdings through the hostile claims of individuals. The total amount of their claimed property of this kind is 403,000 acres, of which more than 300,000 are in densely settled provinces of Luzon. Their annual income from this land has never exceeded $450,000, Mexi- can, or about $225,000 in gold. No rents have been collected by them for the last two years, the occupants of the land in some cases paying rents or taxes to the insurgent government. The monastic orders have placed title to this property in trustees, facilitating its transfer, and there have been intimations of a willingness to dispose of the land to the govern- ment at a reasonable price. Assuming that the bulk of this property will, after the title to it has been tested, remain with the monastic orders, the Philippine commission proposes a wise and practicable plan of ridding Luzon of the evil of alien landlordism that is involved in these extensive ecclesiastical holdings. In its report of October 15, 1901, it renewed its recommendation of the pre- vious year that it be .given authority to issue bonds with which to buy up the agricultural holdings and other property of the religious orders. The report says : Now that peace is being restored and civil courts are exercising ordinary juris- diction, the necessity for removing this firebrand from the important provinces of Cavite Laguna. Bulacan and Bataan cannot be overstated. Under the military regime it was entirely possible by military order for military reasons to forbid the owners of these lands from attempting either to collect their rents or to oust their tenants- but now no such arbitrary remedy is available, and the only course which is feasiiDle is the one suggested. The commission believes itself in a position to say that there Is a willingness on the part of those who have control of this matter for the religious orders to negotiate and part with all the land to the government at reasonable prices. As it has already stated in its former report, the commission believes that the transfer of the property and its sale in small holdmgs to the pres- ent tenants on long payments, might be effected without loss, and that this solution would be very satisfactory to all the people. The commission should be authorized. In case its view of the matter is approved, to issue bonds in an amount sufficient to buy the lands, and should be required to hold the proceeds of the sales of such lands, as a sinking fund, to meet the obligations of the bonds. We earnestly recommend this course. The matter is a pressing one, for the action of the courts m enforcing legal decrees in favor of the real owners of the land against the tenants will be a constant source of irritation, riot and lawlessness in the provinces where the land is, and this will lead to distrust and uneasiness everywhere. The Secretary of War in his report of 1901 approves this project. He says : One of the purposes for which the borrowing of money should be authorized is the acquisition of tracts of land held by religious orders in the islands. Three 36 Oriental America and its Problems religious orders, the Dominicans. Augustlnians and Recolletos, who were estab- lished under Spanish rule, had at the time of American occupation a holding of about 403,000 acres of agricultural lands. These lands are occupied by a native tenantry^ intensely hostile to the friars, and that hostility is unquestionably shared by the vast majority of the people of the islands. The relation of these landlords to the r tenants and to the entire people was one of the chief causes of irritation and rebel- lion under the Spanish government. . , ^, ,, • „ „_.q„„„ ti,„(. The new conditions make it manifestly for the interest of the religious orders that they should convert into money this property, which they can manifestly no longer peacefully enjoy or practically make useful. At the same time the peace and order of the community, the good will of the people toward the government of the United States, and the interest of an effective settlement and disposition of all questions arising between the church and state in the islands, make it equally desirable that these lands should be purchased by the state and that title upon proper and reason- able terms should be offered to the tenants or to the other people of the islands. J? or this purpose it will be necessary that money should be obtained from other sources- than the ordinary revenues of the Philippine government. The receipts from sales of the lands to natives can be devoted to the payment of any bonds issued to raise- money for the purchase. The policy of buying the friars' agricultural lands was vigorously ad- vocated before Congress, and, even before the national legislature had approved the project, the negotiations with Rome, already described,, were begun, which coupled government purchase of the friars' lands with non-return of the friars themselves, thus killing two birds with one stone. By the act of July i, 1902 [see appendix], Congress authorized the land purchase plan. S.VTISFACTORY SOLUTION OP PRIAR PROBLEM EXPECTED. While no definite settlement has yet been reached of any phase of the question so vital to the welfare of the Filipinos, "Whether they are to be subjected again to the domination of the friars, and whether they can readily acquire an individual interest in the soil upon which they live," yet the tendency of declarations and events is decidedly encouraging, and the drift is now strong toward the non-return (with perhaps a few ex- ceptions) ot the Spanish friars, toward judicial inspection of ecclesias- tical claims to property, toward the purchase or condemnation of land to which the friars have valid title, and toward the absolute elimination from the archipelago of the evil of ecclesiastical absentee landlordism. Congress having approved the project of purchasing the friars' agricul- tural lands. Governor Taft is vigorously urging the American pro- posals in negotiation with Archbishop Giam Battista Guidi, whom the Pope has chosen as apostoHc legate to the Philippines. The proverbial wisdom of the Roman Catholic Church can hardly fail to work out a con- clusion of the matter which will relieve it from occupying the friars' re- lation toward the Catholic Filipino people of feudal lord toward his re- tainers, hated as a ruler, hated as a landlord and hated as a man. The pressure applied by the four powerful monastic orders afifected is great, but the necessity of church representation and ecclesiastical conditions in the PhiHppines which will be acceptable to the Filipinos and not detri- mental to peaceful American control, is paramount. While an earnest effort will doubtless be made to test to the fullest extent the acceptabil- ity or non-acceptability of the individual Spanish friars in their respective parishes, there is reason to believe that in general the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines will in its own interest be administered after the fashion and methods and through the personnel of the church in the United States rather than that of Spain. Meanwhile the popular hostility to the friars in the Philippines is as strong as ever. Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, one of the three Filipino Luzon in i0o2 37 members of the Philippine commission, says in the January, 1902, num- ber of the North American Review : The principal benefit resulting from American sovereignty in the Philippine Islands has been the liberation of the Filipinos from the sad and hated political in- tervention of the friars. The system employed by Spain to assure her domination in the country by means of the religious orders is well known. Americans are not able to understand what the friar really is, because they regard him purely from the religious point of view, and in the Philippines the religious side in the friar is one •of the very least importance. To understand his role in these islands it is necessary to recall the part which he played in Spain in the time of that terrible King Philip II, when the Inquisition and the intolerance of the monks controlled with iron hand .all the social, economic and political machinery of the Spanish state. On December 30, 1901, services were held in the various provinces ■commemorative of Jose Rizal, the Filipino author and martyr. The me- morial celebration in Manila took place on the Luneta, where Rizal was ■executed December 30, 1896, by the Spaniards at the instance of the iriars. The memorial procession, which was honored by an address from Acting Civil Governor Wright, was chiefly remarkable for the intense hatred displayed toward the friars. When passing the Augustine monas- tery the processionists cried : "Your power is dead ! Go home ! We ■don't want you here ! The blood of the martyred Rizal is avenged !" It is reported from Roman Catholic sources that in 1902 the native priests in painting or ordering pictures of the devil for church use repre- rsented him as clothed in the garb of a friar. A pointed warning of the wisdom and necessity of the most thought- ful and considerate handling of its Philippines problem is given to the Roman Catholic Church by the revolt against the authority of the Pope Tjy a number of the anti-friar native priests, headed by F. Gregorio Aglipay. This movement for an independent Catholic Church has gained considerable popular support, and is evidently causing the papal legate in the Philippines much uneasiness. If the Roman Church had adopted promptly the conciliatory policy toward the Filipinos which was urged upon it in its own interest in 1900, the Aglipay schism would doubtless have been impossible.* *In his report of November, 1902, Governor Taft says of the Aglipay revolt: Grego- rio Aglipay Is an Ilocano, and was an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church in these islands before the insurrection. During the insurrection he contiuued his priestly functions at Malolos and took such action as to bring him into conflict with the hierarchy of the church. Subsequently he assumed the leadership of the insur- recto forces in Ilocos Norte and carried on a very active campaign in the mountains of that province. He was one of the last of the leaders to surrender with his forces in north Luzon. Since his surrender he has been quite active in spreading propaganda among the native priests against the so-called friar domination of the church in these islands. The definite refusal of the Vatican to withdraw the Spanish friars from the islands was made the occasion for the formation of the Independent Filipino ■Catholic Church. Padre Aglipay has secured the active and open co-operation of a number of native priests, fifteen of whom he has appointed bishops, himself having the title of arch- "bishop. He has held mass in many different places in and about Manila; his serv- ices have attracted large gatherings of people. Most of the churches in the Philip- pine Islands were built by the labor of the people of the respective parishes and de- -voted to the Roman Catholic Church; but the people have a sense of ownership, and when a majority of them separate themselves from the Roman Catholic Church and accept a new faith it is difficult for them to understand that they have not the right at once to dispossess the priest of the Roman Catholic Church and place in custody and use of the edifice their newly made cure. In order to prevent constant recurrence of disturbances of the peace I have had to take a firm stand with the lead'crs of the movement by impressing upon them that forcible dispossession of a priest of the Ro- man Catholic Church, for years in peaceable possession of the church and the rec- -tor's house, is contrary to law, and would be prevented by the whole police power. The feeling against the friars, which has already been referred to in a number of reports, lends strength to this movement. Chapter V THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES Surprising and Impressing tlie Sultan of Sulu— Moro Spear Dance, Kris and Jabul — American Big Guns and Rifles, Siiips, Soldiers, Electricity and Ice— A Day in Mahometan America—The Sultan and His Dattos— His Treaty With General Bates —He Would Lilce to Visit the United States. JOLO, SULU ARCHIPELAGO, January 17, 1000. When the Senate ratified the treaty with Spain we annexed, in addi- tion to other acquisitions, a half million followers of Mahomet, a mis- cellaneous assortment of sultans, dattos (chiefs) and their followers, a nineteenth century reproduction of the feudal system which regulates- their relation to one another, and certain fruitful and beautiful tropical islands which they inhabit. The Sulu Archipelago proper, Mindanao and Palawan (for the exact location, size and population of which see the geographies and the en- cyclopedias), contain the bulk of the Moros or Mahometan Filipinos. The conditions of the problem set for us in this part of the PhiHppines. dififer widely from those which confront us in Luzon. Here are no in- surgents and no friars to vex us ; but in their place Mahometan polygamy and the semi-slavery of the feudal system promise the possibility of trou- ble for the future. Spain's sovereignty here, to which we have succeeded, though fully recognized, was exceedingly feeble, and was bolstered up by agreements, with and concessions to the Moro sultans or dattos, and especially the potentate who lives on this island of Jolo. The sultan of the Sulu Archipelago claims political and religious- jurisdiction not only over that group of islands, among which he includes- Mindanao, but also over Palawan and North Borneo. His rehgious con- trol, as representative of the prophet, is more widely recognized than his- political and military sway. Mindanao, which has sultans of its own,. does not recognize him at all. Palawan also has a sultan. Even in the sultan's own island of Jolo there are dattos who, while grudgingly own- ing allegiance to him, hke the most powerful of the barons of the middle ages, believe themselves stronger than their liege lord, and quarrel with him, and are entirely ready to fight their nominal superior. The- sultan has, however, in the Sulu group 120,000 people and 20,000 fighting men,, of Mahometan contempt for death and of piratical and blood-letting" tendency and inclination, who would probably respond enthusiastically to his call to arms, especially if a holy war were declared; so that, in spite of his troubles as a ruler, he is entitled to receive and has received a certain degree of consideration from the meddlesome Americans wha have intervened so recently and so vigorously in Asiatic afifairs. Through the wise diplomacy of General Bates and the tact of ofificers serving under him in dealing with the problem the relations between the United States and the Moros are distinctly amicable, and a dangerous- period in the history of American operations in the Philippines has beert safely passed. With the Tagalogs on the warpath it was essential that the Moros should not become actively hostile. With the Sulu sultan,, who had expected to succeed to Spanish sovereignty in the Sulu group,, and who was disappointed and sulky over the advent of the Americans, General Bates succeeded in making a written agreement, subject to the The Southern Philippines 39 approval of the President and Congress, renewing several of the features of the treaty by which Spanish sovereignty had been recognized. Gen- eral Bates has also given verbal and effectively pacifying assurances to other sultans and dattos, as, for example, of religious liberty under American control. The Moro idea of a Christian, based on their experi- ence with the Spanish, pictures a fanatic whose highest aspiration is to cut down the hated Moslem in the same fashion that their own jura- mentadoes seek with certain confidence the joys of highest heaven through a death achieved while slaying Christians. A Christian pro- claiming religious liberty is inconceivable to them and unrecognizable by them. And thus it happened that the Sultan of Sulu assured his people that the Americans were not Christians, but Presbyterians, and our sov- ereignty is for the time throughout all of the Mahometan Philippines cheerfully accepted. As evidence of mutual confidence the Moro, when he enters a city like Jolo, the American headquarters in the Sulu archipelago, disarms at the gate ; and so when the American officer or soldier goes out into the country, as from Zamboanga, he also lays aside his arms. The policy of disarming the Americans has the additional advantage of removing temptation from the individual and unregenerate Moros to ambuscade and murder scattered officers or soldiers for the sake of securing their revolvers or rifles, which are much coveted and highly prized among this fighting race. JOLO FESTIVITIES. The i6th of Januar}', 1900, was a great day for Jolo. An army trans- port was in the harbor, bringing to the American officers stationed there the second installment of women visitors recorded in the red-letter chronicles of the American military occupation. The Sultan of Sulu, whose shanty-palace was at his nipa-hut capital of Maibun, some twelve miles away, on the other side of the beautiful little island of Jolo, was also a guest. And these distinguished visitors were to be brought to- gether in an irresistible combination of Asiatic and American royalty, the great occasion being celebrated both by Moro and American festivi- ties. Our party landed early from the transport, the launch scattering the native canoes with outriggers which hung about the ship, displaying Moro products for sale. Jolo boasts a fight house and stone pier, and on landing there we were met not only by representatives of the Ameri- can officers, but by Jolo's native chief of poHce, with the coat-of-arms of the United States conspicuously displayed on his brass-buttoned jacket, and by a delegation of private citizens of both sexes, all sizes and every degree of nakedness. Jolo is a miniature walled town, with broad, clean, tree lined streets. It has room within its tiny inclosure for a population of a few hundred, and is surrounded by a loopholed wall eight feet high. Its cleanliness, airiness, public structures, flowers and foliage make it exceedingly at- tractive. In its improvements it is primarily a monument to the energy and wisdom of the Spanish general, Arolas, who, being sent here by Spain as a pestiferous liberal to take his chances of life in a recognized pest hole, instead of dying, as might have been expected, drove the dis- ease-producing conditions from Jolo as readily as he expelled the Moros at the bayonet's point from Maibun. A very broad street, as wide as Pennsylvania avenue in Washington, leads from the pier straight to the south wall. It serves the purposes of 40 Oriental America aud its Problems a plaza and of a parade or review ground for Jolo. This was the scene of the main festivities of the day, beginning with native dances, to be fol- lowed by a review of the American troops. PICTDEESQUE MORO VILLAGES. Before the formal celebration began we visited two native villages adjacent to Jolo. Passing through the picturesque main gate of the city we saw, just outside, the Spanish disarming station, now used as a bolo (knife) market. This station is a raised pavilion inclosed in wire net- work. In the old days the Spanish soldier stood, as it were, in his cage and received the knife of the Moro before he entered Jolo. This precau- tion was taken after several Spanish soldiers had been cut down by Moros during the process of disarmament. The pavilion is still a dis- armament station, but the inducement thereto is no longer a threatening rifle, but the allurement of gold or silver coin. The barong, with its short, heavy, effective blade and its hilt of carved wood, ivory or silver; the kris, with its wavy, twisting, fascinating blade, and the same varieties of hilt as in the case of the barong ; and the campilan, with its long blade, broadening in eccentric shape at the point, and with its elaborately carved wooden hilt adorned by bells and stained horse hair, were sold in large quantities and at a notable advance over the market price to the members of our party. In our humble civilian way we have contributed conspicuously and effectively to the disarmament of the. Moros. Next we proceeded to the nipa-hut fishing village of Bus-Bus, with the few owners of unsold barongs and krises following in our train. On land Bus-Bus consists of a single narrow, filthy, ill-smelling street, which was now for its entire length a native market, where brilliantly colored fish, fruits and vegetables were exposed for sale, and where our party loaded itself down with spears, parrots, monkeys, hats, mats, sarongs, jabuls, cocoanuts, bananas and mangasteens. The Bus-Busites swarmed about us in every condition of dress and undress. There were many samples of the characteristic native costumes, with the sarong and jabul for the women and tight -fitting trousers, small jacket and voluminous sash for the men, but the most frequent costume of all showed as its dominating characteristic the brown skin of the native unadorned. Most of Bus-Bus is a water city, a collection of nipa huts, built far out into the bay on piles, and approached by a single long, narrow, rickety bam- boo bridge. Bus-Bus is as safe from attack by land as the villages of the lake dwellers of Europe of an earlier age. On the other side of Jolo we visited a second native village called Tulei, which boasts the house at which the sultan stops when visiting Jolo, and is the scene of the cock fighting, the absorbing popular pastime here as in Luzon. The cock fighting which we saw at Tulei took place in a sort of bam- boo pen. A fragile bamboo framework formed an overlooking gallery. As in much of our own horse racing the gambling connected with the sport i\ the main attraction, and the betting is even more fast and furious than the fighting. A long, razor-edged, murderous gafif is attached to the left foot of the fighting cock, and as a rule one of the combatants is killed in a few seconds. Cock fighting is not permitted in Manila, but is allowed in Cavite on Sunday, and nearly every male native passenger on the Cavite ferry boat on that day carrries a game cock under his arm, which he brings back in the evening either with feathers victoriously ruf- fled or picked and ready for the pot in sign of defeat. The game cock is unquestionably the national bird, the eagle emblem of the Philippines. The Southern Philippines 41 There was far more excitement and enthusiasm over the fighting cocks at Tulei than over the sultan himself. At Tulei we visited a hut where, with crude looms, Moro women were weaving cloth for sarongs and sashes, and others were making rude clay pottery. Delicate materials, like the jusi and the pina, made out of the pineapple-leaf fiber by the Visayans and the Tagalogs, are not pro- duced here. MORO SPEAR DANCES. The native dances took place in the plaza in the welcome shade of tall trees of tropical density of foliage. The spectators formed a circle. Chairs protected from the surging crowd by a rope occupied a section of the ring and were used by the American women and other distin- guished visitors. Moros in every variety of picturesque attire, further ■diversified by an occasional soldier, rounded out the circle and supplied an exhibit almost as interesting as the dancers themselves. On the Moro side of the circle was the native tom-tom orchestra. Two wooden drums were beaten by men's hands. Three gongs, suspended from a rope at regular intervals, were struck by sticks tightly bound with cords to mufHe the sound. Eight small copper-covered pots, standing on cords above a hollow wooden box, were beaten in an intended tune by bamboo sticks. In the center of the circle were placed a large, heavy wooden shield and a long spear with bells at the handle. The first actor dancer was dressed in the customary tight trousers and jacket, a brilliant sash with his barong thrust through its folds, and a turban made by folding a bright-colored square of cloth. The sleeves of his absurd little jacket were long and came well down over his hands, as if he had outgrown the garment in body, but had shrunken in length of arm. The dancer picked up the spear and shield, looked quickly to the right and left for his imaginary antagonist, caught sight of him, and advanced with spear pointed toward him, protecting himself with the shield. He circled around his enemy, thrusting again and again, glancing over his shield with a fierce and cunning expression to note the effect of his blow and to aim another. Finally, a well-directed stroke placed his enemy at his mercy. Unsheathing his barong he decapitated his antagonist and re- tired in triumph. In the next war dance two men participated, each with shield and spear, and they imitated in every detail the actual battle, glaring fero- ciously, advancing, dodging, thrusting, parrying with the shield, until one gave way, and the victor strutted from the ring amid the loudest cries of the Moro bystanders, who had kept up a constant shouting dur- ing the whole encounter. Then followed peace dances, in which men, women and children ap- peared in succession. A mat was spread in that part of the circle where the shade was deepest. The orchestra emitted its doleful notes. The women, who were the most interesting in this dance, glided two at a time upon the mat and began a performance of Delsarte posturing with the hands and arms, to which an extraordinary undulating movement was given, writhing, twisting and turning in serpentine curves, bringing every muscle in these members into play, and apparently demonstrating that the dancers were boneless wonders so far as the hand, wrist and ?rm are concerned. The only other parts of the body which seem to par- ticipate even slightly in this so-called dance are the feet, which keep the body gliding slowly in a small circle while the arms are undulating. 42 Oriental America and its Problems In America and Europe the legs dance. In Egypt the body achieves so-called dancing. In Jolo the function is transferred still farther up- ward and the arms and shoulders have their day. The women dancers were dressed in a long, straight skirt, falling to the ankle, a close-fitting, tight-sleeved jacket extending several inches below the waist, and a brightly colored straight garment, called the jabul, serving as a head wrap, and stretching over one shoulder and un- derneath the other arm, thence falling to the bottom of the skirt. The toes of their bare feet were pushed into heelless sHppers several sizes too imall, which were held in place in some miraculous fashion. The performance concluded with more spear dancing by the men, in- cluding a snake dance, in which the performer indicated in pantomime the pain and horror of one bitten by a serpent, which had hidden under his shield. THE SDLTAN OP St'LU APPEAES. Word was now received that the sultan was really coming, and all the Jolo world moved toward the south gate in order to meet him. His majesty had exercised the royal prerogative of delay. He had been ex- pected the day before, but in the afternoon his swordbearer, a comical manikin, galloped up to the commanding officer. Major Sweet, while he Was with our party from the transport, shook hands enthusiastically with everybody, and announced that his majesty had found difficulty in secur- ing the necessary horses and would not arrive until next day. The swordbearer thereupon returned to Maibun, bearing to the sultan, it is alleged, such accounts of the American houris theft assembled at Jolo that his majesty proceeded forthwith to catch his horse and to gallop over in the evening to Tulei, just outside the wall of Jolo town. His re- ception was then fixed for the next morning, but as the hour approached his swordbearer again appeared and announced that his highness, who was fasting, was too feeble to endure excitement at that period of the day, but would undergo the ordeal in the afternoon. Now, however, the sultan is really coming, and all previous disap- pointments are forgotten. We met his highness at the main gate, attended by his two brothers, his prime minister, Datto Calvi the Moro chief living nearest to Jolo, and a motley crowd of armed and un- armed retainers. The procession, with its show of bright and, in some cases, of rich fabrics, its silver and ivory and gold in kris hilts and betel-nut boxes, and rubbing close against this richness its rags and filth and nakedness, sets Mother Goose's jingle to ringing in one's ears : Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, The beggars are coming to town; Some in rags, and some in tags, And some in a velvet gown. We were introduced and shook hands with the sultan as informally as if he were Mr. Smith of Kalamazoo. His majesty is short and chubby, with a dark, pufify, pockmarked face, a thin mustache of the rudimentary Japanese type, which failed to cover an ugly mouth, and the dull eye of the blase, unenthusiastic Turk. His filed and betel-stained teeth are de- cayed and blackened. He wore a European suit of fight gray, with white shirt and collar (but lacking tie and cufifs), tan shoes and a close-fitting black velvet turban. A very broad, loosely tied cotton sash encircled his waist, and was, in its breadth and in the extent to which it fell below the bottom of his coat, the incongruous element in his European costume. The Southern Philippines 43 He wore several rings, including a large pearl, a gold watch chain showed conspicuously outside his coat and he carried a black silver-headed cane. The crown prince, the sultan's next younger brother, was much more; alert and prepossessing in appearance. He was dressed in the pictur- esque native costume, varying it only by wearing a pair of black patent leather pumps. His barong, with its finely carved ivory hilt, attracted the eye. The sultan and each datto had close at hand a servant, carrying a silver or brass box, in which were all the necessary ingredients for betel chewing. The youngest brother of the sultan was not deterred by the solemnity of the occasion from indulgence in the habit, and he chewed and emitted blood-red expectorations uninterruptedly. The companies of the Twenty-third Regiment at Jolo were drawn up in front of the gate to salute in honor of the sultan. The stalwart, disci- plined, well-armed and effective soldiers contrasted conspicuously with the miscellaneous, irregularly armed rabble which attended the sultan. The party now proceeded to the plaza, where the companies paraded and were reviewed. When the "Star Spangled Banner" was played, and also when the flag passed, the sultan and his retinue stood up with the other Americans. After the dress parade the sultan and dattos and some of the attend- ants were taken out on the launch to the transport, and just before we reached the ship seventeen guns were fired from it in salute. We were so close at hand that the reports jarred severely upon the sultan's nerves. At the first reverberation he grasped a post of the launch with one hand and braced himself against his seat with the other. He is not, however, unfamiliar with heavy gun firing, having been saluted by other American ships and by the British at Singapore. It was explained to the royal party on the launch that the guns which made so much noise were comparatively small affairs ; that some of the American guns were as long as the launch itself, and could shoot from Jolo harbor to Maibun. This statement created an obvious sensation. On the transport the sultan fired one of the six-pounders, and with his party inspected the entire ship. The Moros were most impressed by the electric light, which some of them hesitatingly felt to see if it would burn ; and the electric fan, the breeze from which was a mystery and a source of joy. At six o'clock the sultan could break his fast. So at that hour his party was escorted to the ship's saloon, that it might enjoy a light luncheon. The royal fast was thoroughly broken. Judging from their achievements at table, the remainder of the party, as well as the sultan, had been fasting for all indefinite period. They held possession long past the dinner hour of the ship. After one Moro (not, however, at the sultan's table) had experimented with ice water and lived, he passed it to his table associates. They sipped it and forthwith all ordered ice water, but before drinking made a heavy drain upon the sugar resources of the ship in order to sweeten the beverage sufficiently. Ice itself was a fas- cinating mystery to them, to be touched only with fear and trembling, and after some officer in whom they had confidence had braved the dan- ger. Some of them tried bold experiments with buttered bread, their first experience. All drank copiously of coffee and consumed with exas- perating slowness vast quantities of cakes, raisins, nuts, small pickled onions and olives. It is to be hoped that no one of the Moro guests had 44 Oriental America and its Problems internal reasons later that night for suspecting that the Americans, under pretense of doing him honor, had tried to poison hmi. HIS MAJESTY UNBENDS. The sultan, who had been sullen and sulky in appearance until he had broken his fast, now blossomed out into cheerfulness and affa'jiUty. He came up on deck and through his interpreter conversed with *« Ameri- cans. He said gallantly that he could now form an idea of what America must be like after seeing this great ship and the American ladies upon it. One of the ladies aforesaid intimated that America was much grander than the sultan could imagine on the suggested basis, and concluded by saying that there were buildings in at least one of our cities that were twenty-one stories high. At this bit of statistics the sultan gave a dis- tinct cluck, which may have been an exclamation of astonishment and admiration, or, on the other hand, may have indicated incredulity, ihe suggestion that the sultan should come to America and settle the matter by personal inspection was received by him with dignified enthusiasm. He wished very much to visit America, and hoped that some day he might be able to do so. He had been to Mecca, and wished to enlarge his travel experiences. The crown prince also showed a lively interest in the suggested American trip, and asked how many days would be re- quired to make it. Encouraged by this unbending with the representatives of the women of America, some of the ship's party inveigled the sultan into the cap- tain's cabin and induced him to make for them a few autograph signa- tures, but he soon wearied of this labor. When he found that I came from the capital city of the republic he forwarded through me his greet- ing to the President of the United States in the following words : Finally the royal party went ashore, and its entertainers rushed ravenously to the saloon. The day's festivities concluded with a ball given at Major Sweet's headquarters by the oiificers of the regiment to the American women on the transport. The sultan's youngest brother represented the royal family on this occasion, the others being exhausted by the labors of the day. The youngster was accompanied by three of his retainers and the interpreter. He is nineteen and has only three wives in his palace. He is looking for another. He sat chewing constantly the betel nut and watching intently the waltzing couples. He expressed himself as highly pleased with the American dancing, and as enjoying the music much more than that of the Spaniards. The Spanish had, however, never in- vited him to a ball, he said. When refreshments were passed, he evi- dently viewed the ice cream with suspicion and distrust. The interpreter The Southern Philippines 45 explained to him that all American women were very fond of the dish, and that the ladies present were anxious that he should taste it. There- upon he reluctantly put aside his betel quid and took two mouthfuls of the cream. He immediately pronounced the verdict : "It is very cold," and devoted himself to the cake, to which the sweet-toothed Moros seemed to take kindly. Something of a cloud was thrown upon the day's enjoyment at the eleventh hour by the news that in his visit to the transport the sultan had lost or been robbed of his cane. The first report was to the effect that the missing article was his sacred cane from Mecca; that he had demanded that the ship be stopped and searched for it ; that in the event of failure to produce it no compensation short of the annexation of the American women on the ship as additional wives woufd be satisfactory, and that lacking both cane and women he would promptly declare war. Later news, however, disclosed that the missing stick was not the sacred cane with jeweled handle," but a darker stick with a plain silver head. And our ladies breathed more easily. The events of the day, in addition to furnishing entertainment and instruction to a few Americans through a novel experience, serve a use- ful and practical purpose in impressing upon the leading Moros the power and diversity of resources of the nation whose sovereignty they have recently recognized. The American influence over them is strength- ened in proportion as they are moved to wonder and admiration by things American. Their impressions of the republic are practically all to be formed. Most of them have never before even heard of the United States. The trip of the sultan and a few of his retainers to Mecca represents the most extensive foreign travel of the ruling family. If the sultan himself is avariciously stolid, and subject only to the influence of money, the same is not necessarily the case with his brothers, who may succeed him, or with his chiefs and advisers. The ability of the Ameri- cans to sway the forces of nature, as demonstrated to the Moro mind in the applications of electricity and in the making of ice, creates as deep an impression as the show of military strength in the fine dress parade of armed giants and in the booming of the great guns. The indications of interest in and regard for the Moros have also a good efifect. One of the hardest factors to be overcome in the real pacification of the Filipinos, which is to follow the war, is their resentment of contemptuous treat- ment by many of our soldiers, who, adopting the term from English resi- dents in Manila, have systematically spoken of the Filipinos and treated them as "niggers." If we are to follow English example, we would be wiser to imitate the policy of the English officials in dealing with the native princes who hold relations with their government. A showing both of consideration and of strength and an appeal to the love of the spectacular are especially effective with Asiatic peoples. The suggested trip of the sultan and his brothers and a few of the most powerful dattos to America could hardly fail to have the most beneficial results in the maintenance of peace and good order in the Sulu archipelago and the continuance of amicable relations between Americans and Moros.* *In connection with the St. Louis exposition of 1004, in which tlie Philippines are to make an elaborate and costly exhibit, it is expected at this date (April, 1903) that the sultan, with a limited number of his followers, will be brought to the IJnited States. He will make an interesting exhibit for the exposition and will undoubted- ly be profoundly impressed to his own advantage and to the benefit of American insular government, by what he observes of the population, wealth and power of the republic. Chapter VI MORO-AMERICANS Evils of Semiteudal Slavery and Mahometan Polygamy— Make Haste Slowly to Cure Them— Datto Calvi's Protest Against New Customs Taxes for the Sulus— The Sultana's Phonograph. JOLO, SULU ARCHIPELAGO, January 18, 1900. The problem of a wi.se, just and beneficent American policy for the southern Philippines, which shall maintain American sovereignty, pro- mote peace, and" advance the interests and meet the reasonable public sentiment of the people both of the islands and of the United States, has not bv any means been permanently solved. It is very easy indeed by thoughtlessness or by obstinate blundering, either here or at Washing- ton, to overturn whatever has already been accomplished and to raise up troubles for us which will dwarf those that have confronted us in Luzon. We have made a start in the right direction, and the good work of General Bates in securing by peaceful means the recognition of Ameri- can sovereignty by the Moros is being supplemented apparently on the same lines of tact and judgment by the subordinate officers in command at Zamboanga and Jolo. Major Sweet of the Twenty-third Infantry, in charge at Jolo, whose record as a youngster in the civil war was that of a dashing fighter and not a negotiator, is apparently developing in his new field of labor into a suave diplomat. When I asked Major Sweet what his general policy was in dealing with the Moros he rephed : "One of conciliation and mild coercion, fos- tering amicable relations, seeking to lead and guide and not to drive. As a result we are steadily, if slowly, gaining and confirming their confi- dence and good will, in spite of the suspicion and distrust of the white race which their contact with the Spanish developed in them." "Have you been troubled by the murderous juramentadoes?" "No. The last case of this running amuck by Mahometans, who kill Christians until they are themselves killed, occurred toward the end of the Spanish occupation. They have never attacked us. Word was sent to the sultan that not only would any juramentadoes be promptly shot, but that he would be held responsible. He assured us that these fanatical murders would be suppressed. It was in this connection that he made the discrimination, of which you have heard, between Ameri- cans and Christians." "Have you had occasion recently to intervene as adviser among the Moro chiefs ?" "A short time ago some Moros were publicly hacked to pieces at the neighboring village of Bus-Bus for stealing a few fish. I remonstrated with the chiefs concerned, represented that life was too precious to be taken away for so slight a cause, and urged that they were chiefs only in name if they could not prevent such butcheries. "The strongest representations made to the Moros have been on the subject of the necessity of refraining from attacking Americans. The chiefs were urged, if they or their people had any grievanfce against American soldiers, to let me know and not to kill unless in self-defen.se. Moro-Aniericans 47 They were assured that the murder of Americans would mean the com- ing of gunboats and of an army with disastrous results. PECULIARITIES OF THE AMERICANS. "In response to these representations the sultan issued a circular to his people, in which he pointed out the difference between the Americans and the Spaniards, and cited cases of kind treatment of Moro women by the former, which marked them as humane. He mentioned as a peculiarity of the Americans for the guidance of his people that when they wanted anything done they wanted it done quickly ; and he warned the Moros not to kill an American under any circumstances. He indi- cated that the individual American did not represent himself alone, but that if one were hurt or killed all Americans rushed to his defense or to punish those who had attacked him. He likened us to a box of matches in which if one is struck and ignited the whole box goes off. His figura- tive warning seems to have been effective, for we have had no trouble Avhatsoever." The agreement with the Sultan of Sulu stipulates that the freedom of slaves may be purchased at the market price, and President McKinley in his message to Congress, while approving the agreement, declares that it "is not to be deemed in any way to authorize or give the consent of the United States to the existence of slavery in the Sulu archipelago." It is clear that the subject is one of difficulty. Major Sweet, when ques- tioned on this matter, said : "Slavery here is not the slavery of the south before the war or the peonage of Mexico. It is a mild form of feudal bondage. There is no cruelty based on the existence of the relation, no humiliating race or caste discriminations involved and no severe labor required. I believe that there is no transfer without the slave's consent. The agreement with the sultan seems to contemplate the gradual eradi- cation of the evil by compensated emancipation." NEW TAXES IN THE SLLD ARCHIPELAGO. By treaty between Spain, Germany and England free trade was estab- lished in the ports of the Sulu archipelago. When we succeeded to Spain's sovereignty the treaty became voidable, and is now terminated by us. We are gradually putting in force in the Sulu ports occupied by our troops the system of customs duties, adopted with some modifica- tions from the Spanish regulations, which prevails throughout the rest of the Philippines. Major Sweet said on this subject : "There are no Moro merchants and the customs duties do not fall directly upon them. The Chenos (Chinese) are the retail merchant class of the east. They, of course, shift the weight of the duty as far as possible upon the Moros. I have recommended to General Otis a remission of the duty on rice for one year. Disease has swept away the cattle which are used to culti- vate the soil of the island, and the people must have cheap imported rice in order to live.* •From Gen. F. H. Crowder's report, July 4, 1901: Every consideration has been shown the people of the sultan by discontinuing un- til further orders the collection of industrial and urbana taxes and by suspending until December 31, 1901 the levying of all import duties on certain articles imported into the Jolo Archipelago. This exemption was for the purpose of enabling the inhabitants to recuperate their losses in cattle and certain products. The Philippine commission has by appropriate legislation rendered more effective that article of the treaty, which declares all trade carried on by the sultan and his people with the Philippine Islands shall be free and unlimited. 48 Oriental America and its Problems "The sultana, the sultan's mother, who has been of service to us through her good will toward the Americans and through her influence with her son, has asked the exclusive right to introduce Chinese tobacco into the Sulu archipelago. This request is in pursuance of the Spanish custom of creating such monopolies and of selling them or parceling them out among favorites. It is entirely inconsistent with the Ameri- can system and had, of course, to be denied." The sultana, to whom Major Sweet thus referred, is an intelligent, witty and very interesting woman. Unfortunately, she is old and infirm, and has not the strength to exercise frequently her undoubted influence with the sultan. THE SULTANA'S "VOICE ENGINE." General Bates had a phonograph purchased for the sultana, which Major Sweet sent to her. This machine talked Moro, repeating several passages from the Koran, and conversations in the same language con- cerning affairs in which the sultana was interested. The effect upon the royal audience when the phonograph began to declare itself in Moro is reported to have been tremendous. In view of the boyish enthusiasm of the learned and dignified members of the American Academy of Sciences as they listened with curiosity years ago to the metallic outgivings of the perforated tin foil of the first Edison phonograph in the Smithsonian In- stitution at Washington, any open-mouthed wonder displayed by semi- savages at a similar experience could well be pardoned. The sultana ex- pressed her appreciation of the phonograph in a letter written in Arabic and marked by her seal, which reads as follows : "This letter from your sister, the Sultana Inchy Jamela, to my brother, the Brigadier General John Bates, and to Major Sweet, the gov- ernor of Tiangy. I beg to inform my brothers that the voice engine you made me a present of has reached me, and that 1 shall look upon it as a heirloom. I am very grateful to you for the brotherly way you are treat- ing me. You have placed me in your heart and I will also place you in my heart. I beg to send you my best wishes, and may God repay you for your kindness toward me. Written this i6th day of the moon Rajah, in the year 1317." A ROYAL NEW YEAR GREETING. But the sultana is not the only ready letter writer in the royal family. At the end of December, 1899, the sultan sent through Major Sweet a New Year greeting for 1900 to President McKinley, which has been duly forwarded and received, and which may consequently without impro- priety be here recorded : "This letter from your brother His Highness the Sultan Hadji Mo- hamad Jamalul Kiram to my brother, Major O. J. Sweet, Twenty-third Infantry, the governor of Tiangy (Jolo) : "I beg to send my heartiest New Year greetings to the President of the United States, also to yourself and all my brothers in Tiangy (Jolo), your adjutant, and the secretary and all the soldiers. May you all be prosperous and happy during the coming year, and may God' assist you in all your undertakings, and may we become closer friends and brothers. I also beg you to be kind enough to give me a copy of the agreement in English, and also a flag for the purpose of sailing about with. If I can possibly manage it I shall pay you a visit today. Written this 28th day of the moon Shaaban (December), in the year 1317." Moro-Americans 49 A MORO PROTEST AGAINST TAXATION. While I was talking with Major Sweet at his headquarters DattoCalvi, the powerful More chief who lives nearest to Jolo and who has been a firm and effective friend of the Americans, appeared on the street with a small crowd of followers, and in an interview with him I obtained an idea of the More view of the burning question of the day in Jolo. As we awaited the arrival of the interpreter Major Sweet showed the datto and his party a handsome sword (described as an American barong) and a gold-ornamented helmet. Cigars were offered and eagerly accepted and soon all the members of the party were smoking. Datto Calvi has a clean-cut mulatto face of keen and attractive ex- pression. He has closely cropped, straight black hair, a thin mustache and goatee, and his teeth are frightfully discolored. He was bareheaded and barefooted. He wore an unostentatious Moro business suit, consist- ing of a thin gauze shirt, tight-fitting canvas drawers for trousers, and several circumferences of many-colored scarfs at his waist. He carried the inevitable kris and wore a seal ring on his little finger. Close at hand was a boy bearing a silver box with the ingredients for betel chewing, to which the datto had frequent recourse. While he sat smoking a belated member of his retinue or a messenger entered the room and collapsed prostrate on the floor in front of his bare feet before venturing to address him. Finally the interpreter arrived, and through him I expressed my pleasure at meeting so powerful a datto and so good a friend of the Americans. Calvi replied : "I am not the most powerful of the dattos. The sultan is over all. But I am a friend of peace and of right." I asked him what message he would like to send to the American President and people. He answered : "I am not the sultan. I cannot speak with full authority. But my message for my own people would be to call attention to the burden placed upon them by the import and export duties which the American government has recently imposed. These duties have increased the price, in some cases doubling or trebling it, of everything which my people buy — sugar, sarong, rice, tobacco, gambler, matches, etc. — rendering it almost impossible for the poor man to live. What he has to sell is cheapened by the export duty. If this taxation continues it will be necessary for the Moros to raise the prices of whatever they make or collect for sale — as copra, hemp, pearls, and shells, cocoanuts and fruits of all sorts." The fact was here developed that Major Sweet had recommended re- mission of the duty on rice. Datto Calvi expressed gratification that this concession had been recommended, and hoped that the same course would be followed in respect to the other articles. He was pleased to have the opportunity of conveying his thoughts to the American people. MIXOE CASES ON THE DOCKET OF THE GOVERNOR OF JOLO, Datto Calvi then discussed with Major Sweet several minor and per- sonal causes of complaint, which may be noted as of interest in disclos- ing the kind of questions involving responsibility which come before American officers and military governors in the southern Philippines. Calvi set forth that in a visit to an American transport before Major Sweet came to Jolo a kris had been stolen from him, and that the officer in charge of the transport (naming him) had .promised either to recover the kris or to secure for him from the government a rifle. This officer was not now at Jolo. Calvi was anxious to get either the kris or the rifle before the matter had passed from memory. 50 Oriental America and its Problems Major Sweet said that this was the first time that he had heard of Calvi's loss, that he would write to the officer in question and inquire whether the kris had been recovered, and if it had not been found that he would ascertain what it was proper to do in the matter. Calvi said that during the latter days of the Spanish occupation a Chinaman, who had married his Filipino slave, owed him (Calvi) a debt, and had promised that if this Filipino woman ceased to be his wife she should become the datto's property in payment of the debt. The woman had run away from the Chinaman, who was no longer at Jolo, and had married a Filipino. Calvi wanted from this latest husband either the money of the debt or the woman, whom he yiewed as security for it. Major Sweet said that he could not undertake to straighten difficul- ties which occurred during the Spanish occupation; but that he would cause inquiry to be made of the Filipino husband to see whether he was willing and able to pay something under the circumstances. Some of Calvi's people had committed murder and robbery and fled to Sandakan, in north Borneo. Calvi wanted a pass which would enable him or his agent to go to Sandakan and get redress in the Borneo court. The pass was promised him. Finally, Calvi explained to Major Sweet, in verbal response to a letter written to him concerning some government horses which had been stolen, that he had made every effort to get track of the horses, but that they were not to be found ; that he did not believe they were taken by his people, but if this turned out to be the case they would be returned and the thieves punished. Further discussion of the matter developed the interesting fact that a follower of one of the sultan's immediate people had stolen some horses from one of Calvi's retainers ; that redress had been demanded in vain and that in retaliation horses from the sultan's immediate jurisdiction had been taken by some of Calvi's people. REUALIATORX ROBBERY. Such quarrels over cattle, characterized by reprisals in robbery, are very apt to lead to bloodshed, and Major Sweet has endeavored to enact under such circumstances the role of a peacemaker. In spite of Calvi's protestations in his interview with me of subor- dination to his overlord, the sultan, he and his brother Joakinine, whose district adjoins that of Calvi, are by common report almost at the point of open rupture with that potentate. The combined forces of the two brothers are beHeved to be at least equal to those which the sultan can control. Joakinine is a famous fighter and general among the Moros. Calvi is the statesman, the speaker, the wise adviser. Calvi makes a far better impression upon one as a man of brains and force than the sultan himself.* •Major Sweet's report accompanying General MacArthur's report for a period ter- minating July 4, 1901, gives an interesting account of the maneuvering of the sultan on one side and of Calvi and Joakinine on the other to throw the blame and responsi- bility on the adversary for hostilities which both seemed to desire. All of Major Sweet's efforts to cause them to keep the peace were futile. The mimic war forecast between the sultan and these two dattos broke out in the summer of 1901, and for some months hostilities of the comic opera variety were waged on Jolo Island, mark- ed by numerous engagements, but by very little bloodshed. W^hen General Corbin visited Jolo the sultan came to see him, fresh from the battlefield, armed and ac- companied by his guard. The war gradually wore itself out without anyone suffering the humiliation of defeat, and the sultan has today no greater control over his re- fractory dattos than he liad before hostilities began. Indeed his prestige must be less, since it has been demonstrated that his powerful subjects may revolt with Im- punity. Moro-Americans 51 One of the supposed objects of the sultan's visit two days ago to Jolo, when he reviewed the troops and held a reception on the transport in the harbor, was to discuss with Major Sweet the same question of customs dues about which Calvi spoke. But the sultan is not credited with desiring tp benefit his subjects by anything that he does or pro- poses. Most of his public acts are attributed to mercenary motives, to the desire for personal gain, regardless of his people. While he held Siassi by surrender on the part of the Spaniards before the Americans had appeared in the archipelago he made the most ex- cessive and outrageous assessments. In many ways the Americans have cut down his opportunities for filling his pockets at the expense and to the injury of both foreigners and Moros, and he does not especially love us. The opinion concerning the sultan's cupidity is so general that it was openly and contemptuously expressed by Datto Mandi, the Mindanao chief who was so efficient a factor in bringing Zamboanga under Ameri- can control. When told by Colonel Pettit, the energetic commanding officer at Zamboanga, that the sultan had recently visited Jolo, he gave to his fingers the significant movement of one who handles coin and asked, disdainfully, "Why did he come ? For this ?" MINDANAO REPUDIATES THE SULU SUDTAN. Datto Mandi is the most attractive and apparently the most forceful of the dattos whom I met, making a better impression even than Calvi. He has Spanish blood in his veins and has visited Madrid and Barcelona. He has a strong, smooth-shaven face, a curving nose and a keen eye. He makes no pretense of recognizing the authority of the Siilu sultan, either as a political or religious leader. W]jen questioned on the subject of allegiance to the sultan he scoffed at the very idea. The other dattos of Mindanao are, it is reliably reported, equally outspoken in denying the claim of the Sultan of Sulu. Mandi is a force to be taken into account in Moro affairs. In com- pany with Colonel Pettit I met him and talked with him in the new vil- lage which his people are building on the site of that which was destroyed during the fighting at the time of the Spanish evacuation of Zamboanga, and in front of the large house which he is constructing for himself. He claims control of northwest Mindanao from Zamboanga to Dapitan. When I expressed gratification at making the acquaintance of one who had proved himself by deeds so valuable a friend of the Americans, he reciprocated courteously the expression of pleasure at the meeting and added : "I am now an American myself." SUG&ESTIONS OF POLICY. A few conclusions, based upon what one sees and hears here, impress themselves as obviously reliable, even upon the casual, hasty observer who can penetrate but little beneath the surface of things. It is evident, for instance, that an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu will not suffice to bind in amity more than a fraction of our half million Moros in the Philippines, and that rupture of this tentative agreement will not be absolutely certain to render hostile more than the same frac- tion. It follows that the simple, verbal understandings reached by Gen- eral Bates and his subordinates with Mindanao sultans and dattos, and also with some of the Sulu dattos, are as valuable in their way and should 52 Oriental America and its Problems be followed up as carefully as the more elaborate written agreement with the Sulu sultan, which requires the red tape accompaniments of a treaty, is submitted for consideration and approval by the Senate, and, when approved, becomes a binding record fixing the sultan's treaty- making status. It follows, further, that we should cultivate friendly rela- tions and secure and retain strong influence over all the sultans and dattos, not making formal written conventions with them (unless it is ab- solutely essential, as appeared to be the case in dealing with the Sulu sultan while the Tagalog revolt was at its height), and neither unduly magnifying the latter sultan to the detriment of the other chiefs, with the result of inflaming his vanity and avarice and of rendering him doubly difficult to deal with, nor unwisely depreciating his religious and pohtical influence, with the result of upturning friendly relations and of precipi- tating hostilities, which, while crushing the sultan, would be bloody and protracted.* *In his report of date July 4, 1901, General JE. H. Crowder, military secretary of the Philippines, discusses the status of the sultan in his relations to the United States and recites the decisions of the American authorities on questions affecting the sultan which are based upon this view of his status. He says that an exami- nation of the treaties and the practices of Spain in her relations with the sultanai;e of Jolo demonstrate that the sultan was, for the last half century of Spanish domi- nation a subject of Spain, and that such doubts as have arisen as to the relations between the Spanish government and the sultanate have sprung from the failure on the part of the government to exercise the rights it had. and not from the lack of possessing them. » • • In the agreement negotiated by the United States military authorities with the sultan the sovereignty of the United States is acknowledged and provision is made for the use of the United States flag, and for the occupancy and control by the United States of such points in the archipelago as public interests may demand, and the sultan agrees to accept monthly salaries for himself and dattos. On the basis of this wise general view of the status of the sultan (the only one which could with any safety be taken) specific decisions were reached in several cases defining the sultan's powers. For instance, it was discovered by the forestry bureau that the sultan had granted a concession to a commercial corporation to cut timber on islands of the Jolo archipelago, and that considerable work was being done by the concessioner, the timber being almost all exported to Hongkong, by way of Jolo, After investigation it was decided that the cutting of the timber had been on public lands, and under date of November 14, 190O, the concessioner was advised that the military government did not recognize the validity of the permit held by him, hold- ing that the Sultan of Jolo was not authorized to dispose of timber rights or to grant permits for the prosecution of the timber industry except in accordance with laws and regulations enforced by the military government. Likewise parties claiming rights under permits granted by the sultan to engage in pearl fishing in the waters of the Jolo archipelago have been informed that all such permits were of doubtful validity. The conviction has been steadily, though gradually, forming in the minds of both the civil and military insular authorities that the treaty with the Sultan of Sulu. while doubtless wise as an expedient to prevent hostilities with the Moros at a time when the revolting Tagalogs were all that could be handled, assumes too much power and too wide a jurisdiction in the Sulu Sultan; and a movement, involving ne- gotiations and a conference with the sultan, is now in progress, by which the civil government and the military authorities in co-operation hope to accomplish a more satisfactory agreement to take the place of the treaty, which shall be based upon the existing facts of the actual powers of the sultan and of his true relation to his dattos, the Moro people, the other sultans and the American authorities, and which shall pre- pare the way for better defined government of the southern Philippines. Governor Taft "was preparing to attend a proposed conference with the sultan at Jolo when he was attacked by his illness, which has caused him (March, 1903,) to leave Manila and go to the health resort of Benguet. In his report of November 1, 1902, Governor Taft says; "It is very possible "that an arrangement can be brought about by which the Sultan of Jolo can be induced to part with such rights as he claims to have in the Jolo archipelago and that in this way questions which now present very perplexing difHculties with respect to owner- ship of privileges, rights and lands may be obviated." Gen. Chaffee, at that time commanding general in the archipelago, in his report of September 30, 1902, says; "The sooner the Sultan of Jolo's title, actual or assumed, as sovereign and as sole owner of land in the Jolo archipelago is quieted the better for the situation. Prob- ably there is little doubt that a money consideration would relieve the situation of his claim and presence." Gen. George W. Davis, at that time commanding the brigade in Mindanao and Sulu archipelago, in his report of August 1, 1902, says: "If the Sultan of Sulu could accept a money consideration in satisfaction for his trans- fer of title in Borneo, then he might find no insuperable objection to a cession of kingly rights or pretensions over his lands and vassals in Sulu. It is suggested that Moro-Americans 53 It appears that a discrimination must be made in laws and form of government between Moroland and the rest of the Philippines. The con- ditions are entirely different in the two sections. Legislation which would be wholesome in one would threaten immediate war in the other. GO SLOWLY IN EECOXSTRUCTIXG THE MORO. To withdraw from the southern Philippines and to wash our hands of responsibility for the control of them is apparently an impossible al- ternative. If we hold the islands (as we will) we must, however, exercise our authority in such a way as to save life and promote happiness on through such cession for a small yearly cash payment the Moro overlord could be induced to retire and leave the United States to deal with the Moros in such man- ner as might seem best adapted to serve the purposes of the United States in Moro lands, and which is understood to be to civilize the inhabitants and develop the country, to abolish piracy, slavery and polygamy, all of which are now practiced in the Sulu Islands or waters, to establish schools for education of the Moro youth, and to turn his bloody spears and krises and campilans into utensils of industry. It will take a long time to do this, but the presence of the Sultan, who is conceived by us to possess royal rights and dignities, is a positive obstacle to the execution of such a policy, and he must be removed or mediatized before any real progress can be made." The present proposition is to buy the alleged rights of the avaricious Sultan. Gen. Davis, in a previous report of October 24, 1901, made the more radical recommen- dation of abrogation of the Bates agreement by act of Congress. "Of course," he says, "the Sultan and his adherents would be displeased to lose the power to extort tribute from his people and especially to lose his subsidy from the government. It might result in hostility, but I doubt that, for before the change was made there would be a sufficient force on the ground and in the waters adjacent to quickly crush any force mustered by the Sultan, but if an outbreak did occur he would have to be disciplined only once. The fact is that the treaties the Spaniards made amount- ed to very little anyway. There was never one made that was not soon violated. The only agreement they can understand is one emphasized with blows, and that the Americans and Jolo Moros must some day come to blows I have no doubt." It is to be hoped for the national credit that the Jolo problem may be peacefully settled at the proposed conference, and that there will remain no temptation for the United States to resort to the alleged Spanish policy of violating agreements, provok- ing hostilities and then of crushing the aggrieved and silencing complaints by the application of superior force. Gen. Davis' views are of importance because they are forcibly and ably expressed, and because he is now the commanding officer in the archipelago, succeeding Gen. Chaffee. V7hile he recommended in 1901 that "no Sultan or king over all the Moros of any region or over other dattos be recognized" and that "no pension or subsidy be allowed to any Sultan or heir apparent or to any other chief," he recognized the strength of the opposing contention, saying on this point: "There is an alternative method of procedure and this is to profit by the example set by England and Holland, especially the latter power— for the Dutch govern more Malays in Java than the ag- gregate of all the rest in the world, and among them are a million Mohammedans. The Dutch did not, and do not. overturn the native rulers, nor do the English in India and in the Straits Settlements; neither do they make treaties with them. The plan so successfully introduced in Java by Governor Van den Bosch in 1834 was to show the local kings and rajahs a way and means by which their own revenues could be greatly increased. A resident who nominally had no power was appointed for each local prince, and yet this Dutch adviser was the real power behind the native throne and the rajah knew it. All the resident had to do was to advise, watch, inspect and report and the rajahs apparently did the rest. Prom 1834 to the close of the century it was never necessary to interpose force with these rulers, while in that period the population increased more than 300 per cent, and the trade from almost nothing to many hundred million guilders. If the Sultan of Jolo is to be retained as a puppet kingling, he should be stripped of all real power through measures such as have been so successfully employed in other oriental lands. It is possible that his quasi-sacred character under the law of his religion might be utilized in some way for the benefit of his people, but I prefer the other course, and that is to abate the Sultan nuisance, just as the Moros themselves have done with their own Sultan in Mindanao." Gen. Davis further modifies his vigorous anti-Sultan, anti-datto policy by saying very sensibly; "It seems to me the worst misfortune that could befall a Moro commun- ity, and the nation responsible for good order among the Moros. would be to destroy the patriarchal despotism of their chiefs, for it is all they have and all they are capable of understanding. * * » While we may refuse to recognize their rulers, and even destroy them, we cannot eradicate a deep-seated religious conviction, the prin- ciples of which have been cherished for more than a thousand years. They have no knowledge or respect for any other law than the one which exacts an eye for an eye. It seems to me to be our duty to respect this conservatism and deeply rooted prejudice, to utilize it and to use these dattos in our efforts to lead these people away from slavery, polygamy, piracy and despotic rule, just as the Dutch have in Java and the English in India. That much success can be obtained with this generation I do not expect Our only hope is with the rising generation and those to follow." 54 Oriental America and its Problems both sides of the Pacific and to spread the blessings of civilization in such fashion that they do not become curses to our beneficiaries. Slavery is hateful to the American idea and is forbidden to exist by the Constitution. Unmistakable slavery, though of the mild feudal type, exists in the southern Phihppines. Shall we abolish it ofifhand, shedding American blood to reconcile the Moros to what they will look upon as confiscation of their property? Or shall we proceed cautiously and peaceably to eradicate the evil, perhaps through some moderate measure of compensated emancipation, such as that which with many safeguards of economy was put in operation by the Dutch in Java ?* Polygamy is antagonistic to American sentiment. It is a part of the religion of Mahomet and prevails among the comparatively wealthy few in our Mahometan islands. Shall we bring on "a holy war" in the Phil- ippines by demanding the immediate eradication of polygamy and the exodus from the harems of all but wife No. i ? Or shall we follow the example of exceeding forbearance set by other Christian nations with Asiatic and Mahometan dependencies and our own precedent in winking for a time at the social customs of the American Indians ? Polygamy is a luxury of the rich. Education and contact with civilization will render it more and more expensive every year, will steadily increase the dis- content among the plural wives and will doubtless gradually abolish the *The Philippine commission's report of 1901 says: Certain of tlie non-Christian tribes have highly objectionable customs. The ques- tion of how best to deal with slavery among the Moros has attracted wide attention in the United States. On its southern trip the commission met and had long inter- views with the Sultan of Sulu and the principal datos of the Sulu Archipelago, as well as with Dato Mandij. who rules the Moros in the Zamboanga district, and Dato Plang, Dato Utto and other leading datos of the districts of Cotabato and Davao. In the course of these interviews the slavery question was discussed very frankly. The insular government has never recognized slavery in any way, and the Moros were informed that it never would do so. They showed little hesitation in giving us the details of the system as it exists, and their statements were confirmed by military officers in command of garrisons at the several points visited. We learned that slavery is widespread among the Moros. but at the present time exists in an extremely mild form. The old slave-hunting expeditions have nearly ceased. The Moro datos claim that they no longer occur at all, but it is known that this statement is not strictly true, as the Moros of Mindanao still occasionally cap- ture members of wild tribes in the interior of that island. The Filipinos formerly held as slaves have practically all been liberated by our troops, although it is pos- sible that a few may still remain in bondage in the Lake Lanao region. Slaves who desire their freedom and who seek protection at any military garrison receive it. The large majority of slaves held today have sold themselves for debt or are the children of those who have so sold themselves, the obligations of parents being in- herited by their offspring, A slave may secure his liberty by paying to his owner an amount equal to the price paid for him, but should he sell himself for a certain sum and should his master afterward be able to sell him for a larger sum he must repay this latter amount. In the majority of cases slaves are treated kindly, and they are frequently allowed time and opportunity to earn money, so that it is possible for them to redeem themselves if they desire to do so. The casual observer finds it im- possible to distinguish them from members of the family to which they belong. Mili- tary officers everywhere expressed the opinion that Moro slaves were, on the whole, so well satisfied with their lot that if they were all set free the majority of them would promptly return to their old masters and voluntarily take up their old life again. This statement is not advanced as a defense of the system of slavery which prevails among the Moros, but rather as an illustration of the difficulties to be en- countered in abolishing it. An attempt at the present time to use force in securing the liberty of Moro slaves would inevitably provoke a fierce conflict with a brave and warlike people, and so far as the slaves themselves are concerned, would meet with little appreciation. If, on the other hand, the refusal on the part of the government to recognize slavery is persisted in, and the taking or acquiring of new slaves is prevented, the question will settle itself in a generation without bloodshed or the bitterness necessarily engen- dered by an armed strife. It should be understood that slavery in the Philippines is by no means confined to the Moros. It is common among the wild Indonesian tribes in the interior of Min- danao and among the wild Malayan tribes of northern Luzon. If the evidence of credible witnesses may be believed, some of the wild tribes of Mindanao sacrifice their slaves to propitiate their heathen divinities. Repulsive as these facts are, it is Moro-Ainericans 55 evil of many simultaneous wives by driving men to our own superior sys- tem of many wives in succession through the operation of our lax mar- riage and divorce laws. If we decide that the immediate extirpation of neither slavery nor polygamy from the Philippines is worth the shedding of a drop of American blood we may also conclude, with advantage, to go slowly at first in regard to the imposition af unaccustomed taxes upon the Moros. TUDICIOOS TAX EXEMPTIONS. An export tax in practical effect reduces the price of what they sell ; an import tax is made to increase the price of what they buy. The Chinese middleman with the duties as a pretext swindles the Moro by making the reduction of the selling price and the increase of the buying price, respectively, much more than the amount of the duty in each case. The military authorities will doubtless find a way of preventing this im- position. In regard to the equities of taxation, it is, of course, to be re- membered that American occupation brings, and will continue to bring, ta the Moros trade, prosperity, circulation of money and enlargement of taxpaying capacity, and that the islands must as soon as possible produce the revenues necessary to meet the expense of their economical govern- ment. But it is far more important for the immediate present that the Moro should not conceive the idea that he is being taxed and oppressed in novel ways to which even the Spaniards did not resort, than that funds idle to enact laws or issue orders until they can be made efEective. The commission believes that the slavery question can be settled without resort to violent measures. a' practical result of the intercourse between Moros and Americans has already been seen in the proclamation of Dato Mandij abolishing slavery among: his people in the iistrict of Zamboanga. It is hoped that other datos may be induced to follow IWandiJ's example, and that eventually the wild mountain tribes may be reached by the same methods which have been so happily employed in his case. 'The report of Secretary of War Elihu Root for 1901 says: It is gratifying to report that the efforts of the American officers to bring about a cessation of the practice of slavery among the Moros are not fruitless. The char- acter of the slavery practiced is ciuite unlike that formerly practiced in the United States in this, that the Moro slave, so called, becomes a member of the owner's fam- ily, enjoying many privileges, often having voluntarily sold himself into slavery to better his condition. The so-called slaves themselves exhibit no special anxiety to change their condition. All who seek freedom receive it upon coming into the Ameri- can lines. The following proclamation has been issued by the Dato Mandi, one of the most powerful of the Moro rulers: (Circular.) "To the datos, principals and old men of the Moro rancherias of this district: "Being aware that some Moros in villages within my jurisdiction continue to en- gage in slavery, some by loan made to poor families, some buying them for trading, all doubtless forgetful of the orders Issued by the old government of Spain, which strictly prohibited slavery, and in order not to wait to be again instructed by the civil government of the United States, I direct all my subjects, especially the datos, principals and old men of all villages in my jurisdiction, beginning with this date, to comply and enforce the rules provided in the following sections, viz: "First. In view of the fact that slavery has not and never will bring any progress with it, you shall prevent Morps to have slaves of their own or other race. "Second. If actually some are in such condition because of debt contracted for his immediate needs, he will not be considered as such slave, but as a hired man who receives a salary for his services, and with the view of extinguishing the debt in from eight to ten months. "Third. It is strictly prohibited from this date illegal trading of Moro slaves and also slavery among themselves. Offenders of these rules will be liable to a penalty or a fine. "Zamboanga, April 19, 1901. "This is a literal copy of the original, which was written in Arabian characters. "The Dato Rajahmuda. "MANDI." It is believed that the peaceful process, the rapid advance of which is indicated by this proclamation, will attain the desired result much more readily than it could be accomplished in any other way. 56 Oriental America and its Problems should be secured for public improvements in the Sulu archipelago, which can well wait that more convenient season when all will be quiet in the Philippines* •In 1902 hostilities occurred in the Lake Lanao region of Mindanao, primarily caused by the murder of some American soldiers by Moros and refusal to surrender the murderers, and possibly pushed the more vigorously on account of the desire ot some American officers to come to a definite, forcible and satisfactory understanding with hostile dattos before any reduction of the army in the Philippines might dimmish the American power to compel respect. The fighting culminated in an engagement at Bayan, May 2, 1902. when the Americans, with the loss of seven killed and forty- four wounded, captured a native fort defended by a force of about 600 Moros, killing, it is estimated, more than half of them. It was believed at the time this severe blow would serve as a salutary lesson to the Moros that would not need to be repeated. But it was found in the subsequent months that there were serious limitations upon the lasting effectiveness of the blood- and-iron policy. General George W. Davis, commanding in Mindanao, said in his re- port of August 1, 1902: "The writer is confident that the sultans and dattos around the lake who have not yet presented themselves will yet do so, and that in time we shall be able to accomplish more by bloodless methods than through the severe and destructive operations of war; but we must not forget that power is the only func- tion of government that they respect, and the time may come when force must again be used." General Chaffee, commanding in the archipelago, says in his report of Sep- tember 30, 1902, of the Lake Lanao Moros: "At the present time and notwithstand- ing every assurance we can give that our presence at the lake is not intended to dis- turb the Moros in their homes, customs or religion; that we have demonstrated our desire not to use force to crush them, we are still disdained and treated contemptu- ously by several of the most powerful dattos in that section. Our reason for in- action, though the troops have often been provoked by the repeated murdering of unoffending soldiers, is misunderstood by these dattos. who Jjelieve us to be cowards —afraid to attack their defenses. The fight at Bayan on May 2 seems not to have convinced them to the contrary. We can do nothing to change the war spirit and the desire for conflict associated in the minds of such chiefs without the application of force to humble them in their pride and assumed invincibility. I fear this will have to be done in three or four instances." Early in 1903 there was some fighting in the Lake Lanao region, but in the com- bined or alternative policies of severity and conciliation which have been employed in dealing with the Moros the latter is now dominant, and Captain Pershing, who is In charge of the American force in the lake region, seems to be acting tactfully and with good results. The program of General Davis for the treatment of the Lake Lanao situation, submitted in 1901, is as follows: "As respects the Malanao country we should not lose a day in setting on foot a movement for reoccupation of their country abandoned by the Spaniards in 1897-98, and that means the following: (a) The reopening of the wagon road from Iligan to the lake, to be guarded by a battalion of troops, (b) The launching of light-draft gunboats on the lake like the three which are now sunk in the lake. (0) The installation of electric motors driven by turbines with the abundant water power of the Agus river, (d) The utilization of this power to operate a trolley railroad on the wagon road grade, (e) There should be a regiment of troops in the lake country, (f) The extension of the road around the lake to and across the divide to Paranparan, which would be the base ultimately and a commercial port for all southern Mindanao, the road to be extended to Cotabato, where it could tap the trade of the Rio Grande valley. "This would take some years to accomplish and would cost two or three million dollars, but it will solve the Moro problem in Mindanao and lead ultimately to the commercial development of this great island." As a general policy toward the people of the southern Philippines General Davis, who is now in charge of the American forces in the archipelago, believes in vigorously pushing for solution the Moro problems, and, having reached a conclusion, of pounding the Moros into prompt compliance. Governor Taft on the other hand favors the slow and sure method of settling the difficulties in the southern Philippines, and suggests postponement of the Moro problems until the affairs of the Tagalogs and "Visayans are well in hand. General Davis said in 1901: "I cannot too strongly recommend that the policy of the United States with respect to the Moros be decided on without delay, and that it be announced and enforced at whatever cost. When these born pirates feel the weight of our power they will believe we are in earnest and respect us, but until then they will despise and hate us." Governor Taft said in his last report in 1902, on the subject of a permanent arrangement for the administration of the southern Philippines: "I think it is wiser on the part of the commission to postpone the consideration of the Moro question until we have passed legislation to meet needs that are more pressing throughout the northern part of these possessions of the United States. For a great many years to come there will be no question of popular government in the Moro country; the Moros do not understand popular government, do not desire it, and are entirely content with the control of their dattos. Possibly far in the future the control by dattos will cease. There is room for material and in- dustrial development among the Moros and with their material improvement may come a change in their political views. For the present, however, it is necessary only to provide a paternal, strong, but sympathetic government for these followers of Mohammed." Chapter VII HINTS FROM JAVA Results That May Well Be Emulated in Luzon— Javanese Malays Will Work— Java's Land and Labor Opportunities Reserved for the Javanese— Culture System in Luzon— Natives as Civil Officials and as Soldiers— Polygamy and Slavery. (1900.) America's comparative inexperience in dealing intimately with Asiatic peoples and in grappling with and mastering for the highest use and benefit the conditions of soil and temperature which prevail under a tropical sun gives to all the pertinent precedents for the wisest solution of the Philippine problem an indefinitely multiplied value. What the Dutch have well done and ill done in Java — an island not much larger than Luzon and inhabited by a people in whom, as in the Filipinos, Malay blood predominates — cannot fail to furnish both exam- ple and warning in meeting in the Philippines similar difficulties to those which have been solved for good or evil in the beautiful southern island. So what the English have well done and ill done in the tropical gar- den of Ceylon and in dealing with the Cinghalese is profitably to be con- sidered in deciding what will be wise and beneficial for our own tropical islands and the peoples who look to us for guidance and development. Lack of judgment is shown in brushing peremptorily aside the Jav- anese and Cinghalese precedents on the ground that government in these islands, which is credited with determining the character of their institu- tions, is through hereditary native princes, who do not exist in the Phil- ippines. Precisely such native rulers are found in the Moro sultans and dattos in the Sulu archipelago, Mindanao and Palawan ; while they have long ago disappeared entirely from Ceylon and nominally govern still in only two of the provinces of Java. Outside of Djokja and Solo in Java, and in all parts of Ceylon, the title to the soil is primarily in the Dutch government and the English government, respectively, just as title to all the soil of the Philippines was primarily in the Spanish government, and passed to the American government through cession, so far as the re- mainder, unalienated at the time of the treaty of Paris, is concerned. In both islands certain of the most troublesome of our questions were long ago met and solved by methods which, while customary in that age, are unavailable at the end of the nineteenth century. There is some sug- gestive value, however, even in these experiences of an earlier century. Javanese history records the development of a Malay people like the Fili- pinos into a race of workers. In both Java and Ceylon the occasional blunders of the whites in so treating the yellow-skinned peoples as periodically to arouse discontent and to incite revolt can be studied to advantage. The Ceylon system, under which the government sells the land outright to the cultivator, and the Javanese system, under which the soil is in the main merely leased by the government, will both repay thorough examination. In Java the question of permitting unHmited Chinese immigration to compete with the native Malays in the labor fields has been disposed of, and a hint given as to the extent to which the Malay can be employed to advantage as a civil official and as a soldier. In both islands slavery and Mahometan polygamy have raised the , same problems which confront us in the Moro Philippines. 58 Oriental America and its Problems PRECEDENTS OP JAVA AJXD CBYLOX. The physical aspect of both islands is such as to impress the observer and to arouse his curiosity concerning the methods by which admirable results have been produced. If we can make Luzon as beautiful and productive as Java and Ceylon, and keep its people as free from famme and disease, as prosperous and as seemingly contented as the Javanese and Cinghalese, we may survey our work with satisfaction. And profit- ing by the lessons of the recorded experiences of the Dutch and English islands we should be able to reach the end sought by a somewhat shorter and easier way than the difficult, painful course over which the Dutch and EngHsh have stumbled to success. We may at least note and avoid the most obvious of the disaster-producing obstacles in their path. When I visited Java in February the rainy season prevailed, but the clouds were considerate, and a very large percentage of the daylight hours showed the brightest sunHght. Rain and sun gave quickened and overflowing life to all the products of the soil, man contributed by intelli- gent labor, and altogether I have never seen anywhere such wonderful development of the capacities of a fruitful soil as were noted from the train which traverses the island for nearly its entire length, and from the carriage by which I traveled for many miles in the interior. Batavia, where one lands in Java, is the political and financial capital and commercial metropolis. The modern residence city, with low, wide- spreading white houses, each setting well back from the broad tree-Hned street and surrounded by an extensive tropical garden, stretches over a vast area, whose surface is further diversified by occasional canals, which, are an especially notable feature of the old Dutch city. There are sec- tions which need only a sprinkling of windmills and cows to suggest Hol- land. Batavia consists of the ancient city, now a business section, reputed! to be unhealthful, in which are the old stadthuis and other historic struc- tures and memorials ; Chinese and Arab settlements, and the modern residence city already mentioned, which includes numerous attractive suburbs, and which is adorned by the usual complement of parks and parade grounds, statues and public buildings, including a fine museum. WORLD'S FINEST BOTANICAL GARDEN. Forty miles inland is the summer capital, Buitenzorg, built among the hills at a cool and healthful altitude. Here is the summer residence of the governor general in the finest botanical garden in the orient, where the Dutch (who are noted botanists and gardeners) have worked won- derful results from the productive, tropical soil, and have concentrated in a few hundred acres a miniature Java, displaying the finest specimens of all tropical products. Every Javanese garden is a delight to the botanist,, but here the luxuriant growths are scientifically classified, and experi- ments in the cultivation of new plants of economic value to the planters of the island are made. Here are the tallest kanari trees, arching over the finest avenues, the largest lotus leaves, groves of tree ferns, avenues of royal palms, the banian-Hke warringen trees, wonderful clusters of bamboo, and the greatest profusion of tropical fruits and spices. The railroad between Batavia and Buitenzorg traverses a low-lying level section of the island, upon which rice and cacao especially are grown. It resembles the rice and sugar-growing portion of Luzon north of Manila, which is crossed by the railroad to Dagupan. In contrast with the densely populated and closely cultivated acres of Java the corre- Hints from Java 59 spending section of war-stricl